Minimum Age to Enter into Insurance Contract
Currently, section 58 of the Insurance Act allows for anyone above the age of 10 to own an insurance policy. However, a person below the age of 16 would require parental approve before he can do this.
MAS is reviewing this part of the Act to :
1) Remove the minimum age requirement to enter into an insurance contract.
2) Increase the age from 16 to 18 whereby parental approval is needed. This will make the Insurance Act in line with our Civil Law Act which stipulates a minimum age of 18 for entering into contracts.
Also, the current law does not allow for those below the age of 16 to do anything with their policies other than buy or surrender. This is because all other dealings relating to a policy (e.g. assignment, delegation, taking out of policy loan) would involve the formation of a
secondary contract between the policy owner and a third-party.
MAS proposes to amend section 58 so that any person allowed to own a policy will also be allowed to deal with that policy in all respects, subject to the same conditions.
The consultation paper for these changes can be found here:
Review of the Age of Capacity to Enter into an Insurance Contract
Any comments or feedback on these changes can be sent to MAS at [email protected] by 8 February 2010.