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Only 1 in 10 Singapore millennials has their gadgets insured: survey
SINGAPORE
Millennials are willing to buy insurance cover for luxury goods but only a few own insurance for their electronics
SINGAPORE
Only one out of 10 Singapore millennials have their gadgets insured despite almost 80% of respondents who said they would be distressed if their smartphone, tablet or laptop would be lost, according to a survey by insurtech startup, KoverNow.
Over 500 millennials of an estimated 1.5 million millennials living in Singapore were involved in the survey.
The survey found out that the vast majority of respondents already own health insurance (73.9%) and life insurance (72.6%). However, despite almost 80% claiming that they would be distressed if their smartphone or tablet was lost or stolen, and 70.8% who would be distressed to lose their laptop, only 12.2% actually said they have insurance cover for these items. This is not because they are unwilling to pay for protection and peace of mind. In fact, the survey found that on average the respondents would be willing to pay to insure their electronic possessions.
Fewer respondents said that they would be distressed with the loss or theft of fashion items such as jewellery (40.5%), luxury watches (36.7%) and luxury handbags (32.2%) however, they would still be willing to buy insurance cover for their luxury goods.
73.9% own health insurance, 72.6% have life insurance, but only 12.2% have gadget insurance Millennials prefer insurance apps
Of the millennials surveyed, around 45% said that they search for information about purchasing financial products or services through online search engines. Whilst word of mouth recommendations were also a preference, nearly 40% said that online reviews, articles and/or videos informed their purchasing decisions.
The findings also show that millennials in Singapore would be open to using a mobile app to purchase insurance, and the top four most common insurance products they would consider buying through an app are health, mobile device, life and travel insurance.
“The results of this research offer compelling evidence that millennials are open to buying insurance using an app if it can be made easy and straightforward for them – historically complex transactions from frontto-end, such as insurance, have not been possible using an app, but our research shows that Millennials are prepared to use this channel. They are also willing to spend money to insure what is important to them, but they are looking for the kind of digital service they are used to getting from their bank,” Stephan Kaiser, CEO of KoverNow said.
More than 53% of Singaporeans want to be covered for MDD
At least eight out of 10 Singaporeans are keen to be protected from mental health issues such as major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorder and bipolar disorder through private mental health insurance according to a research by Swiss Re Institute.
The research was done in two phases in which Swiss Re enacted a qualitative exploration of focus group interviews for 24-45-year old working males and females in March and a quantitative evaluation of online questionnaire results in May. 30% of consumers were found to be very open to private mental health insurance whilst 54% are somewhat open, bringing the total share with an open attitude to 84%. This aligns with findings from another Swiss Re survey conducted in Asia earlier this year, in which 87% of consumers were open to the idea of mental health insurance due to their overall experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mental illness coverage
More than 53% of Singaporeans want to be covered for MDD. This was followed by anxiety disorder (50%), bipolar disorder (32%) and Schizophrenia (30%). 53% of respondents also prefer to have mental illness coverage as part of other insurance policies as well as interest in add-on services such as medication and hospitalisation support, rehabilitation, therapy and counselling.
The survey also found out that the form of compensation most desirable for Singaporeans is reimbursement of medical bills (44%) rather than a single lump sum payment upon diagnosis (22%).
In the latest Singapore Mental Health Study, lifetime prevalence of mental illness amongst adults was one in seven people in 2016.
