Malaysia Life Updates

In 2015, about 50 per cent (around 12.5 million) of Malaysia's population had life insurance coverage protection but 90 per cent of them were under-insured, Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM). The amount for life insurance industry's rule of thumb, in that, an individual especially the breadwinner, is suggested to have life insurance coverage which equals 10 times his annual income.

In 2014, we had 85,000 insurance agents and 20,000 intermediaries who are selling life insurance in the country and Malaysians, over the next few years, would soon be able to purchase insurance policies via the Internet.

 

Malaysians' knowledge of life insurance did not match their counterparts in matured markets of Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore or Hong Kong. For example, he said, clients in the matured countries understood what life insurance was and knew what to ask and what to expect from their agents.

 

LIAM has been calling for a separate tax relief for the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributions and tax deduction for life insurance premiums as currently only a RM6,000 tax relief on combined EPF and life insurance premiums, are given to the people.

 

Malaysia's life insurance industry recorded a 6.2 per cent growth in insurance coverage to RM1.24 trillion in 2015 versus RM1.17 trillion in 2014 and the industry is expected to achieve a moderate single digit growth this year (2016)