AreTheyTheLemmings? wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:28 pm
Take it slow, allow for plenty of time spread over several visits to their shops to work through all the options and find out what's best for you (all those "What if?" questions need answering), and you should arrive at the right policy (or policies).
Absolutely. I don't want to get analysis paralysis but I also need to understand what the policies include and what they don't.
captainspoke wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:41 pm
Are you sure it's your company that's offering it, and not the insurer the company uses? (eg, a kyosai-like system) If it's the latter, then it may be possible to continue the coverage for some period of time after you leave.
Good point. I'll check, but the company also only allows enrollment once a year, and I am pretty sure I missed this year's window due to my current Child Care Leave.
I am also looking at disability insurance. Some of them allow online applications, but for others you need to meet an agent face to face. So I asked kakaku.com insurance if they can give a consultation in English (they offer products from various insurance companies). But they said they can only consult in Japanese because the contracts are in Japanese. Is this generally the case for insurance shops? Am I stuck with those that allow online application?
AreTheyTheLemmings? wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:28 pm
Take it slow, allow for plenty of time spread over several visits to their shops to work through all the options and find out what's best for you (all those "What if?" questions need answering), and you should arrive at the right policy (or policies).
Absolutely. I don't want to get analysis paralysis but I also need to understand what the policies include and what they don't.
captainspoke wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:41 pm
Are you sure it's your company that's offering it, and not the insurer the company uses? (eg, a kyosai-like system) If it's the latter, then it may be possible to continue the coverage for some period of time after you leave.
Good point. I'll check, but the company also only allows enrollment once a year, and I am pretty sure I missed this year's window due to my current Child Care Leave.
Did you end up finding insurance you were happy with? I am now looking at insurance products and wondering how much you pay for all 3 (life insurance, big 3 insurance and disability insurance).
Sorry for my late reply- I've not logged in in awhile. I have been meaning to write a summary. The tl;dr version is this:
1. Life insurance. I am a healthy 34 year old male. I got a term life insurance policy that will give my wife 5000 mon (50,000,000 yen) if I pass away. I think there's something like a grace period of 3 months (can't die within those three months, don't worry, not planning to). The insurance will pay out even if I die abroad, as long as I am still a Permanent Resident of Japan (and you need to file all the paperwork of course, like the country's death certificate). I can't remember if my monthly payment is 7,400 yen or 8,000-something, I will check. Somewhat oddly, the plan will pay out in the event of suicide, but only after 3 years. (I am 100% not planning on that, no worries, I just thought it was kind of odd, I thought suicide usually renders the insurance invalid.) The plan also includes basically a "vegetable state" clause where if I'm clinically alive but by all other accounts dead, and have no chance of recovery, the plan will pay out.
2. I did get "sandaishippei" insurance, the Three Big Illnesses- heart attack, stroke or cancer. I think this costs 3,400 yen a month, need to check.
3. I opted not to get disability insurance because the bar for it paying out is so high. You would pretty much need to be a quadriplegic for the plan to pay out. I am opting to instead save and invest this money.
expat2011 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 12:06 am
2. I did get "sandaishippei" insurance, the Three Big Illnesses- heart attack, stroke or cancer. I think this costs 3,400 yen a month, need to check.
What is the sales pitch like for sandaishippei? Outside of private rooms and VIP treatment?
4000 yen is not too bad, assuming that is a locked-in rate?
Oppurtunity Cost Years Future Value (5.00%) Total Contributions
Year 40 $58,265.49 $19,240.00
To be honest the guy didn't even bring up sandaishippei, I did, based on the recommendation of an earlier poster here. When you walk into the Hoken Mado Guchi, the only sales "pitch" I could sense is they bring out this piece of paper like a checklist, and it has cliparts of a house, a plane for travel insurance, a hospital, etc etc and the guy asked if I had any other types of insurance. I was pretty straightforward and I said, I'm only interested in life insurance and 3 Sicknesses at this time, and he never brought the others up again.
Yes, the 3,400 yen per month for 3 Sicknesses is monthly and I'm free to stop anytime I want. The insurance will continue as long as I pay, and the bill will not go up even in old age.
Is the big 3 (heart attack, stroke, cancer) necessary if you have a home mortgage? My understanding is that most home insurance plans also include those as they pay out the mortgage in the event you get one of those.
vapid wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 6:25 am
Is the big 3 (heart attack, stroke, cancer) necessary if you have a home mortgage? My understanding is that most home insurance plans also include those as they pay out the mortgage in the event you get one of those.
When I had a mortgage it didn’t cover those conditions. I’m actually surprised that a mortgage insurance product would pay in the event of any of those because from a medical perspective many of these can be silent or clinically mild (eg skin or thyroid cancer, MI diagnosed only in retrospect on EKG, strokes that present as transient ischemic attacks, etc.).
While it increases your rate, it seems that a 0.3% rate increase even over a 35-year loan is a pretty nice deal in the case of a catastrophic accident.
I would then supplement that with just a term policy. I was leaning toward 25M for both myself and spouse (so 50M total in term insurance) since that would match our ideal home loan size.
Thoughts? home loan with 8-disease protection and additional term insurance seems like it covers most of the bases.
Thanks. This is interesting and something I had not heard of before. Note that there are (sensible) restrictions on the coverage. For instance for cancer the coverage is for:
ガンを原因とする先進医療の技術料を保障
which I interpret to mean cancer which requires advanced therapy (eg a metastatic cancer requiring chemotherapy)
and for skin cancer the coverage is limited to 300,000 yen:
"上皮内ガン・皮膚ガン保障特約について
この特約の責任開始日以降の保険期間中に上皮内ガンまたは生まれて初めて皮膚ガンと診断された場合30万円を保障"
In similar ways the coverage for MI or stroke is when those conditions lead to some disability and need for ongoing treatment. That is not really a criticism of the policy (it might well make sense to have these in the contract) but I mention it because it addresses the issue I raised with very mild and temporary versions of these conditions.
Thanks for improving my understanding of current mortgage options
