KUALA LUMPUR: More than 14,000 takaful protection plans have been purchased from Prudential BSN Takaful Bhd (PruBSN) by Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members under the i-Lindung initiative.
PruBSN chief executive officer Wan Saifulrizal Wan Ismail said the second iteration of the EPF i-Lindung initiative will assist more people in protecting themselves and their families against any unforeseen circumstances.
“We believe that more middle-class members are obtaining coverage following EPF’s announcement that they can now utilise funds from Account 2 to purchase takaful products for themselves and their immediate family members,” he told Bernama.
According to EPF, more than 102,301 members have purchased 118,166 policies and takaful products through the i-Lindung platform since its launch in July 2022 until December 2023.
In February 2024, the retirement fund extended the coverage to immediate family members.
Wan Saifulrizal said PruBSN understands the urgency to carefully develop protection plans to address the rising cost of healthcare and living.
Through its collaboration with the EPF, PruBSN offers four takaful protection plans, namely PruBSN Lindung, PruBSN Lindung Famili, PruBSN Cegah, and PruBSN Cegah Famili – covering life and critical illness takaful protection at affordable premiums.
On another development, Wan Saifulrizal said there are hurdles such as medical inflation which may impact affordability.
“We believe there are some repricing on medical protection plans this year due to medical inflation. “Hence we will provide few options such as reviewing coverage, or probably opt for a lighter plan to continue the coverage,” he said.
Besides, he noted that the implementation of an additional service tax from six per cent to eight per cent is also among the new headwinds for the takaful industry.
“There is no impact for individual certificate holders. However, companies that intend to provide takaful protection as part of their employees’ benefits, need to pay more due to the additional service tax.
“So we need to ensure that our packages are targeted and priced appropriately to the segment that can afford it,” he said.
He noted that the number of certificates enforced for the first quarter of 2024 is growing despite the price adjustments. PruBSN currently has more than two million customers since its establishment in 2006.
The Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) recently revealed that the family takaful business added 1.13 million new certificates with a corresponding gross contribution of RM9.59 billion in 2023 compared with 1.31 million new certificates and a gross contribution of RM10.06 billion in 2022. – BERNAMA
