A new insurance policy that combines mutual fund investment and traditional life coverage was introduced to Taiwan yesterday.
The US insurer -- Manulife Insurance Co (
"The universal policy provides consumer flexibility that no traditional insurance policy can provide," said Henry Cheng (
Consumers can choose different investment vehicles through dozens of mutual funds, including Fidelity Investment (
One pundit said the new service is a sign of the liberalization to come following Taiwan's entry into the WTO.
"Since Taiwan is entering the WTO soon, we are looking forward to an influx of new financial products like this one which provides more choices for consumers," said Yophy Huang (黃耀輝), an associate research fellow of the Chunghua Institute for Economic Research.
The Ministry of Finance started to deregulate life insurance early this year because of WTO stipulations to allow foreign insurance companies to sell their products in Taiwan. Those products had been banned for several decades, partly to protect the interests of local companies.
"The flexibility that the new policy provides is that a consumer could decide freely on when to pay the insurance premium and how much life insurance coverage he requires. The consumer can also determine which investment vehicles they want and change them at any time," said Cheng.
"Currently no other insurance company in Taiwan provides similar products. However, we expect that other local companies like Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) would try to provide similar products, since we think this is where the market will be heading," said Cheng.
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