Havend

10/09/2026

While many annuity conversations are about income. This one is about what you leave behind.

Many people approaching retirement have done the sensible things. Mortgage cleared, CPF contributions kept up, savings built steadily. What they have never had is someone confirming the numbers actually hold.

If they do, and your income floor is already secure, an annuity is no longer solving a shortfall. The job of your annuity changes.

Some lifetime plans let you nominate a spouse as a secondary insured, so the payouts continue in their name rather than stopping. Some retain a surrender value, so capital that would otherwise sit idle is producing something in the meantime. Features vary by plan and insurer.

But the useful question is not which annuity to buy. It is whether you need one at all, and if you do, what it should be doing.

Havend's Insurance Specialist Team Lead, Omar writes his thoughts about how retirement annuities can be used as a legacy planning tool. Read the article here:

How Retirement Annuities Can Be Used as a Legacy Planning Tool One of the more common things people say when they first write in to...

09/09/2026

If you plan to keep investing through retirement, there is one problem worth solving before anything else: what happens when markets fall just as you need to withdraw?

Selling in a down year to cover living costs locks in the loss. Do that a few years running and the money runs out earlier than the spreadsheet suggested, even if the long-run average return turns out perfectly fine.

In this episode with Havend's Experience Specialist, Jayla, together with Havend's CEO, Eddy, they work through a way around it. Split retirement spending in two. Essential expenses, meaning food, household bills and insurance premiums, are the ones you pay whether markets are up or down. Fund those with annuity income from CPF LIFE and private annuities, so they never depend on a good year.

Everything above that line, travel, hobbies, gifts to the grandchildren, can stay invested. Those are the things you can genuinely scale back in a poor year without it hurting.

The point is not to stop investing. It is to make sure your essential retirement income never depends on getting the timing of the market right.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/3KZOWFmA4XA

06/09/2026

Many Singaporeans reach retirement with enough saved and are still worried about overspending. After decades of relying on a monthly salary, it can be surprisingly difficult to turn a lump sum into an income you feel comfortable spending.

In his latest article, Havend's Senior Insurance Specialist, David, breaks down why his mum knew she could potentially earn higher returns, but deliberately chose to plan for certainty of retirement income instead, and why it’s important to figure out how much can you comfortably spend every month.

Read it here: https://havend.com/retiresure-choosing-certainty-over-higher-returns/

05/09/2026

Disability income (DI) coverage serves a different purpose than Criticial illness (CI) coverage.

Many people already hold critical illness coverage (serious illnesses like cancer, heart attack, or stroke) and assume their income is protected. However, the lump sum payout is only meant to cover you while you recover. But what happens if you’re unable to work for an extended period, even after your CI payout runs out?

DI replaces between 65% and 75% of your monthly income for as long as you are unable to perform the duties of your own occupation, up to retirement age. The payout comes monthly rather than as a single lump sum, so it behaves like the salary it is standing in for.

In our framework the two coverages are meant to sit one behind the other. Many people only have the first layer of coverage.

05/09/2026

A big thank you for this generous 5-star Google review!

We’re delighted to have made a difference, especially when it comes to providing professional guidance, and ensuring the session was productive and valuable for you.

This one genuinely made our day. It's easy for us to say Havend is a safe place to seek insurance advice but it means a lot more hearing it from someone who's actually felt it.

03/09/2026

Last year, David's mother topped up her CPF Retirement Account to the Enhanced Retirement Sum. She also holds a retirement income annuity plan she bought years earlier. She knew that there were investments that could have returned more, but chose an income she could count on.

In his latest article, Havend's Senior Insurance Specialist, David, analyses her deliberate decision to plan for retirement income, and breaks down the two most common groups he sees among Singaporeans approaching retirement. Investors who find it difficult to decide on a plan to draw down, and savers who have enough but never feel certain enough to spend it.

Read it here:

Should you top up your CPF to the Enhanced Retirement Sum? David on his mother's decision, CPF LIFE, and building certainty of income for retirement.

02/09/2026

There is a quiet assumption behind a lot of retirement advice in Singapore: that if you are not invested, you are behind.

For people who are genuinely uncomfortable with market swings, that assumption does real damage. It pushes them into portfolios they do not fully understand, at the stage of life when they have the least time to recover from a bad year.

In this episode with Havend’s Experience Specialist Jayla, together with Havend’s CEO Eddy makes a different point. If you are not an investor by temperament, investing your retirement money badly can leave you worse off than not investing at all.

There is an alternative to investing your retirement monies. Annuities, including CPF LIFE, are built to pay a set income for as long as you live. That is a legitimate option to fund a retirement apart from investment.

01/09/2026

There are three kinds of financial loss when something goes wrong, but not every loss needs to be insured against.

Calamitous losses affect the whole household, to the point where it can no longer function. Serious losses take out roughly half the family's finances. Bearable losses knock your cash flow off course for a while, then pass.

Chapter 2 of our InsureWell eBook walks through all three, and explains why we build coverage around only the first two. Bearable losses are usually ones you can carry yourself, or that your employer benefits already handle. Knowing which category a risk falls into is what stops you paying a premium for something you could have absorbed on your own.

01/09/2026

Havend is here to ensure that your protection is always suitably and sufficiently aligned with your needs, without paying unnecessarily for excess coverage.

This is why we've worked so hard on our InsureWell for Smart Accumulators eBook! Don't purchase more insurance until you've taken time to read this eBook.

Download the eBook here: https://havend.com/publications/

We are a safe place to get insurance advice for those who want to make informed decisions with confidence. Take the first step this year with our InsureWell Assessment and set your insurance on the right path: https://havend.com/contact/

31/08/2026

"Boring income is good income, especially in retirement."

Annuities are often judged on the wrong question. People compare the projected payout against what they could earn investing, decide it looks unexciting, and move on. But an annuity is not bought for return. It is bought so the income still arrives in the years when markets do not cooperate.

That matters more once you stop working. A bad market year was something you could sit out while you were still earning. In retirement, you are selling at the lower price to cover this month's groceries, and that money does not come back when the market recovers.

Omar, Team Lead for Insurance Specialists at Havend, explains how annuities work in the latest Insurance 101 episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kltU5CVtgU&t=4s

Whether you need one, and how much, depends on what CPF LIFE already pays you and what your essentials actually cost.

Welcome to the seventh episode of our series, Insurance 101, where ...