If I am the policy owner but not the life assured, can I transfer the policy ownership to someone else (after my death) through a Will?
Important: Whether an insurance policy can indeed be distributed to the named beneficiaries in the Will in any described manner is still subject to any additional terms and restrictions within the policy itself.
If the policy has already been absolutely assigned to another party who becomes the new policyowner, you no longer retain the rights to give it away. Furthermore, if you have a valid insurance nomination in place, our generated Wills are drafted not to override those insurance nominations.
While you as the policyowner own and fund the policy, the payout and termination usually depend on the life assured (which may not be you as the policyowner). For instance, policies can terminate once the life assured passes away, or some policies may continue on with a secondary life assured. There could also be provisions for joint ownership (where the surviving joint policyowner automatically inherits the policy), automatic transfers under specific conditions, or other special terms and restrictions.
To confirm that a specific instruction for the policy can indeed be carried out via a Will, we recommend that you check directly with the respective insurer regarding your policy terms and restrictions, as well as the assignment and nomination status.
Subject to any additional terms and restrictions within the policy itself, you may do this through a Will.
Under the Allocate Assets tab, add a new Insurance Policy by click on the plus sign.
Key in the details accordingly and under "Allocate Asset <3" select "I give this asset to" and choose accordingly. Toggle on "Additional instructions" and add in the phrase:
For transferring of policy ownership.
You can also add in any other additional instructions you have for the policy. For example, if the intended beneficiary might still be underage you can instead put
For transferring of policy ownership. If {Beneficiary’s Name} is not of sufficient age to legally hold the policy in his/her own name at that time, the policy shall be transferred to {Beneficiary’s Name}’s Guardian to hold in trust, with the express condition that full ownership is transferred to {Beneficiary’s Name} once he/she is of sufficient age to legally hold the policy him/herself.
Since if the plan is being transferred through the Will (e.g. the Life Insured has not died yet), the Estimated Market Value will be based on the market / surrender value of the policy rather than the death benefit / payout. This means that for hospitalisation / shield plans, the estimated market value is S$0.
If you would like the instructions to apply to all plans (including policies bought after signing the Will), please refer to this article instead.