It's funny how after AIG went into trouble, its subsidiary AIA suddenly starts to detach itself away from it. I had plans under AIA, so I went to check the letters/reports sent to me, and I always see this line at the bottom of the page,
"AIG - A member of American International Group, Inc."
Recently, I saw their new brochures and was quite tickled when I saw that they are now stressing their asian origins as opposed to the US parent company.
I was intrigued by this. Unconvinced and thinking that this might be a one off event, I dug out my recent letters from AIA but behold! No mention of AIG at all. Naturally, I went to their website to see their factsheet and realised that there is no mention of their parent company AIG at all too. All I see is the keyword "asian" pasted all over.
This brings to my mind what someone in a forum said about a hokkien saying, "Tree fall, monkeys run". Can't blame them for doing that, can we? We live in a world controlled by impressions and governed by short term memory. Origins can be re-written if there's enough publicity and given enough time.
Lessons to learn? Diversify your insurance portfolio as you would to your stock portfolio. Buying five 200k policy from different companies is better than one 1 million policy from one company.
12 comments :
When you are successful, everyone one is your friend.
When you are a failure, everyone is a stranger.
Such is the way of the practical world. :-P
Be well and prosper.
When you turn from rich to poor, then only you know who are true friends.
http://createwealth8888.blogspot.com/2009/03/debt-free-and-that-to-me-is-richness.html
It was a time to find out who our real friends were. Some quietly paid for our dinners and offered help in a roundabout way.
One pretended it would be a favour to her if we took a bunch of toiletries off her hands as “they were cluttering up my bathroom”.
But there were those who stopped calling us up for fear we would ask them for money.
Some lent us money then chased us for repayment so aggressively I sold my only shares at 10 per cent their value so that we wouldn’t be beholden to them.
brolp, you really mean "interesting discovery" here. LOL
PG,
I hope at least a part of my friends are not like that. It'll be quite sad to really find out their true nature when I'm in need...
Have a great day!
Bro8888,
Hopefully I don't ever need to find out who's the true friends from the bad ones :)
True friends are hard to find.
If I have 5 true friends in my life, I will be more than happy.
Hi LP,
My agent told me it (AIA) was sold off(?) when she delivered me the dairies.
I didn't ask much & did not find out more.
Ops most of my policies are from AIA.
Happy Lunar New Year!
HH
Hi HH,
Oh really? I didn't know AIA was sold off. If that's the case, AIG is really dead.
How are they going to return to their former glory when their crown jewels are all pawned off?
Hi LP,
AIG is dead & would remain dead. All the sellable assets were sold off!
I think my car insurance is from AIG too.
Cheers!
hh
I agree that we should buy policies from a few companies rather than 1 huge policy from 1. It is a bit pricer but afterall, insurance is about risk management. If we do not put all our investment into one stock, why should insurance be? As the saying goes, never put all your eggs into onebasket.
Hi everycentcounts,
Rightly so. But I don't think it's that much pricier. I buy insurance in certain key periods of my life, in tranches.
It's good to diversify insurance by companies and by time too. Better products crop up as time goes by, so better don't buy all your life's needs in one go. Cover sufficiently and get more as we grow :)
AIA have not been sold off, yet. It will be in due course when valuation improves.
i am a firm believer in diversifying ones insurance not just from risk management perspective, certain policies like critical illness is subject to different interpretation from insurers own panel doctors even though the definitions is now standardised.
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