FAQS

In choosing the appropriate insurance product and coverage amount, you should consider your own protection needs and personal financial situation.

Insurance Policy Contract comprises of the policy document, the Application Form and any written statements or declarations recorded by the insurance company in respect of the policy.

Whole life insurance offers lifelong protection and savings up to age 100 to the insured. Premium will usually not be changed after the policy has come into effect.

Endowment insurance has a fixed covered period and savings is the main feature. It will pay the sum assured if death occurs during the covered period. Different from term insurance, if the insured is still alive at the maturity date of the policy, he/she will also receive maturity value of the policy.

Term insurance provides life insurance protection to the insured for a specific period but does not contain any savings feature. The insurance company will pay the sum assured if death occurs during the covered period. However, if the insured is still alive at the maturity date of the policy, no proceeds will be provided to the insured by the insurance company. Premium for this type of insurance plan is usually the lowest out of the 3 types of insurance.

A rider is a supplementary benefit attached to the basic policy. The purpose of purchasing a rider is to increase the protection amount and coverage, including accidental, critical illnesses, hospitalization, and waiver of premium benefit. A rider cannot be purchased on a stand-alone basis and must be attached to a basic policy. If the basic policy expires, the rider will also be terminated.

Individual accidental insurance generally provides the following benefits:

Accidental Death Protection: a lump sum is payable to the beneficiary if the insured dies due to an accident.

Accidental Disability Protection: a claim is payable in accordance with the degree of the disablement due to an accident.

Accidental Medical Expenses Protection: funds are payable for the medical treatment of the bodily injuries of the insured caused by an accident.

Accidental Hospital allowance Protection: hospitalization allowance is payable during the period of the insured’s hospital confinement for medical treatment of bodily injuries caused by an accident.

Medical insurance usually provides medical expenses protection and hospital income protection. The medical expenses protection provides medical expenses reimbursements during the insured’s hospital confinement for medical treatment due to illness or injury. The hospital cash protection provides cash allowances based on the daily allowance and duration of the insured’s hospital confinement.

Critical Illness Insurance provides a lump sum when the insured is diagnosed of any of the critical illnesses listed in the benefit provision.

Waiver of Premium Benefit is a supplementary benefit to an insurance policy, waiving premiums otherwise payable while the insured is totally disabled, complete inability to engage in or continue to work for reward in any occupation, business or employment as a result of sickness or accident. In order to keep the insurance in force, the premium should continue to be paid until a written waiver notification is issued by our company.

Payor Benefit is a supplementary benefit to an insurance policy, waiving premiums otherwise payable till the payor reaches age 60 or the maturity of the premium payment period or the insured reaches the designed age (whichever is the earlier), while the payor dies before age 60 or complete inability to engage in or continue to work for reward in any occupation, business or employment as a result of sickness or accident. In order to keep the insurance in force, the premium should continue to be paid until a written waiver notification is issued by our company.

Trust is the essence of insurance contracts. As one party to a proposed insurance contract, the insurer relies upon the insured to reveal to the insurer all material facts about the risk, whether these are requested or not. This is a duty upon the proposed risk. A material fact is one which would influence the mind of a prudent underwriter in deciding whether to accept a risk and what terms to apply.

The Application Form has to be filled in and signed by the applicant and the insured. If the insured is a junior, the application has to be approved and signed by the statutory guardian. The points to note when filling in the Application Form include:

• Make sure that all details in the sections of Applicant, Proposed Life Insured and Beneficiary have been completely and accurately filled in; and
• Clearly fill in the names of the Basic Plan and any Riders, Sum Assured and product class; and
• Clearly fill in the Currency, Payment Mode and Dividend Option; and
• Supply true answers to the Health Details section, which is the most important section, to avoid any future disputes about future claims; and
• The Application Form has to be signed by both the Applicant and the Insured.

When you receive your policy documents, you should:

• Read the content and provisions carefully, and promptly raise any queries with us;
• Keep the policy documents in a safe place because when a claim arises, you are required to submit all policy-related documents to us;
• Tell your family members that you are insured and where you keep the policy documents;
• Notify the insurance company immediately of any material changes such as change in correspondence address, occupation or health;
• Review your policy regularly to ensure that the coverage can keep up with inflation and is sufficient to cover your needs.

We will process the request upon receipt of the completed《Request for Policy Maturity Form HK-CS-FIN-02》and the amount will be paid only on / or after the maturity date (applicable for application submitted before maturity date). Upon receipt of all necessary documents, we will process and arrange the payment within 14 working days.  

If you would like to learn more about the processing time of value withdrawal and relevant information, please visit our web page Customer Service → Payment And Collection → Collection.

We offer three methods of collecting the Demand Draft as follows:

1. Policyholder/Insured/Beneficiary comes to our Hong Kong Customer Service Center in Wan Chai to sign & collect the Demand Draft in person;
2. Policyholder/ Insured/ Beneficiary signs the attached authorization letter with the reason for not collecting in person. The authorized person should come to our Hong Kong Customer Service Center in Wan Chai to sign & collect the Demand Draft on behalf of him/her;
3. Demand Draft will be mailed to the correspondence address of the Policyholder/Insured/ Beneficiary in Mainland China unless China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company Limited is provided with the reason for not collecting the Demand Draft in person on the Special Payment Arrangement Request Form.

* Remarks: Please check with the local bank whether it can provide demand draft clearing service before application.

To avoid the Demand Draft from being dishonoured by Local Bank, PRC client is advised to confirm the following before application:

1. The Payee must have a Foreign Currency Savings Account in PRC Bank of China（BOC）whilst he/she does not have bank account in Hong Kong;
2. Client needs to check the local branches information on the website of PRC BOC;
3. Client needs to call or visit the local branches to confirm whether the related branch can provide the Demand Draft clearing service.

The automatic premium loan interest rate of our insurance products is 7.00% per annum.  For specific products, i.e. (C199)Rainbow Age (5 Year) Whole Life Plan (SE) and (C208)Superior Wealth (5-year) Whole Life Plan (SE), the automatic premium loan interest rate is 2.25% per annum.  Please note our company may review and adjust the interest rate from time to time, our latest information shall prevail.

The loan interest rat of our insurance products is 7.00% per annum. Please note our company may review and adjust the intrest rate from time to time, our latest information shall prevail.

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For example “Estimated Total Accumulated Cash Coupon/Guaranteed Annuity Payment and Interest (if applicable)” shown on the “Policy Maturity Notice” vs. “Guaranteed Amount” shown on the sales illustration document that was signed at the time of application and “Estimated Total Paid Amount” shown on the “Policy Maturity Notice” vs. “Total Surrender Value” shown on the sales illustration document that was signed at the time of application. Could you please explain the reasons behind?

Answer:

For our Participating Insurance Plans, the total sum of accumulated dividend (including guaranteed dividends, if any, and non-guaranteed dividends, if any) and interest on accumulated dividend, if any, is shown under “Estimated Total Accumulated Dividends and Interest (if applicable)” on the “Policy Maturity Notice”. The sum of Guaranteed Cash Coupon/Guaranteed Annuity and non-guaranteed interest on accumulated Cash Coupon/Guaranteed Annuity are displayed under “Estimated Total Accumulated Cash Coupon/Guaranteed Annuity Payments and Interest (if applicable)” in the “Policy Maturity Notice”.

The “Guaranteed Amount” in the sales illustration document is corresponding to the sum of the guaranteed dividends (if any) under the “Estimated Total Accumulated Dividends and Interest (if applicable)” and the Cash Coupon/Guaranteed Annuity under the “Estimated Total Accumulated Cash Coupon/Guaranteed Annuity Payments and Interest (if applicable)” in the “Policy Maturity Notice”.

The change in terminology and format display are in compliance with the latest regulatory requirement for policyholders’ better understanding of the figures and have no impact on policyholders’ benefits under the policy.

Policyholders of Participating Insurance Plans can enjoy the potential surplus arising from the long term operation of the participating fund via a form of non-guaranteed dividend in addition to the guaranteed benefits. Your premiums will usually be allocated into a relevant participating fund and will be invested in a variety of asset classes according to our investment strategy. We will manage the relevant participating fund in a prudent manner and aim to ensure a fair distribution of surplus and risks between policyholders and shareholders, and among different groups of policyholders.

As dividends are mainly affected by the overall performance of the participating business, in order to alleviate the volatility of achieved gains and losses and the future uncertainties, in particular, future investment returns, we may take moderate smoothing measures to achieve relatively more stable dividends and strive to meet policyholders’ reasonable expectation. We will maintain a fair distribution method or sharing ratio, and appropriate grouping to ensure policyholders are treated fairly, and to ensure policyholders’ benefit expectation and rights are protected.

The current dividend projection is not guaranteed. We will review and declare the dividend at least once a year. When determining the dividend, we will consider the overall performance of all relevant policies on factors including but not limited to past experience as well as future prospect of investment returns, claims and surrenders:

    ● Investment return - including the interest income, dividend income, investment outlook and changes to asset values.
    ● Claims - including the costs of providing death benefit as well as other benefits under the product(s).
    ● Surrenders - including policy termination, partial surrenders and the corresponding experience and impact.

If there are any changes in the actual dividends against the illustration or to the projected future dividends, such changes will be reflected in the policy anniversary statement. The declaration of actual dividends is recommended by the Appointed Actuary and is subject to the approval of the Board (including one or more Independent Non-Executive Director(s)). For products that are associated with an element of non-guaranteed accumulation interest rate, we will consider past investment experience as well as future expected return and other related factors when determining this non-guaranteed interest rate. If there are changes from market, expectation or policyholder behavior, the Company may apply reasonable adjustments to the non-guaranteed interest rate.

Due to the aforesaid reason, the actual sum of dividends and interest upon maturity may be lower or higher than that illustrated at the time of application.

In addition, the “Estimated Total Paid Amount” displayed in the “Policy Maturity Notice” refers to all available policy value less any deductible including “Estimated Total Policy Loan with interest (if applicable)” and “Estimated Total Outstanding Premium with interest (if applicable)”. As such, the actual maturity value would be lower than the projected value in the sales illustration document.