Tell someone they’re going to spend a whole Saturday at an insurance event and they’re likely going to assume it will be a lot of work. No one would want to do this for fun. Which is why when I was assigned to cover the second edition of InsureXpo by CIMB for DollarsAndSense, I thought it would be just a few hours of work and then I could enjoy the rest of my weekend.
What I didn’t expect was the fun-filled activities, content-packed presentations and mingling with like-minded individuals keen to upgrade their personal finances. Here’s how my day went.
9:30am: Arrive Early To Register and Check Out The Goodies In The Goodie Bags
I’ve attended many events at Suntec Convention Centre before, and one of my biggest fears is a poor registration experience and the massive snaking queues that require long wait times. So even though the event didn’t start till 10.30am, I reached an hour earlier.
There were already a few people who arrived before me, and as soon as the doors opened at 9.30am, about a hundred of us streamed smoothly into Suntec’s event halls 405 and 406. The crew efficiently scanned our ticket and handed us our complimentary goodie bags within minutes.
The goodie bag this year contained several practical items like reusable bags, a pouch and a phone stand from the event’s sponsors, including Singlife, AIA, FWD, Income, Manulife, Tokio Marine and Oatbedient. There were also four vouchers from the other sponsors, including Zero Healthcare.
The real queues were happening at many of the booths inside. I made a mental note to return to the booths later in the day, after sitting in the morning keynote speeches.
Read Also: I Attended InsureXpo 2024 Without The Intention To Stay Till The End. Here’s What Changed My Mind.
10.30am: Opening Remarks And Keynote Address
The main presentation hall was already quite packed when the guest-of-honour Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, as well as Trade and Industry arrived at 10.30am.
Mr Tan shared how Singapore plans its finances and spoke about how every Singaporean should think about building Resilience and pursuing Exceptionalism, especially in today’s uncertain world.
During the Fireside Chat with CIMB CEO, Mr Victor Lee that followed, Mr Tan shared that his best investment was in constantly learning, which led him from finance to tech to public service, and how every career switch taught him something new.
It was an inspiring start to the event and really helped to broaden my perspectives lifelong learning – be it in personal finance and insurance or in myself and my career.
11.05am: How Prepared Are We For The Future?
Following the Fireside Chat, emcee Ms. Sonia Chew introduced Mr. Raymond Tan, Head of Wealth Management and Preferred Banking, CIMB Singapore. He presented the findings of a new study by CIMB Singapore and the Nanyang Centre for Marketing and Technology.
The CIMB Singapore: Attitudes and Beliefs towards Financial Independence Report 2025 captured insights from over 500 residents between the ages of 26 and 60 on their perspective toward financial independence and retirement planning.
One key insight from Mr. Tan was that there was “no magic number” when it came to financial independence. The study revealed that there was an almost even split between those who needed $1 million to be financially independent, and those who did not.
Another interesting insight that the Report revealed was how “the younger you are, the younger you want to achieve financial independence”, with as many as 60% of respondents under 30 targeting independence before 40.
His advice to these younger investors? “Start early and leverage on the power of compounding interest”.
11.25am: Our Protection Needs Evolve As We Enter Different Stages Of Life
The following presentation was led by Ms Renita Chua, Head of Bancassurance Partnerships & Sales, Group Distribution, Singlife. She began with a very heartfelt sharing about her own experiences with insurance, and how it gave her “financial peace of mind” during a serious health crisis, and how she was now going on 6 years cancer-free.
Using ikigai, a Japanese concept that literally translates to “reason for being”, she shared how financial freedom meant different things to different people, and that is why insurers like Singlife are innovating more diverse solutions to help each individual achieve their ikigai.
Rounding up her session, Ms Chua expressed how rare it was to have so many high-level representatives from Singapore’s top insurers present at the same event. That really drove it home – and made it just one more reason to hear from as many of the speakers as I could.
11.45am: The Future Of Insurance: Lifetime Affordability, AI Models, Healthcare Partner
Next up was a panel discussion about the future of insurance, that included Singlife’s Ms Helen Shen, AIA Singapore’s Mr Kelvin Kua, FWD Singapore’s Mr Joseph Lim and Income Insurance’s Mr Steven Teo – moderated by CIMB’s Mr Jason Kuan.
According to Ms Helen Shen, Group Head of Products for Singlife, healthcare insurance costs are rising in Singapore because of a combination of three factors – an ageing population, cost of new medical technology and a change in consumer patterns to focus on early detection of critical illnesses. It is important to approach insurance with a “lifetime affordability” perspective, she said.
Mr Joseph Lim, Head of Life Products and Pricing, FWD Singapore, shared that lifestyle and dietary data that “were not readily available 15 years ago”, could now be fed to AI models to help better personalise life insurance products. He therefore believes that life insurance premiums may trend downwards with better information.
When asked about the future of insurance, Mr. Kelvin Kua, Chief Partnership Distribution Officer, AIA said that insurers should move from “payer to partner” as they come up with “integrated healthcare strategies” to mutually benefit clients, doctors and insurers.
Income Insurance continues to look to the future, shared Mr. Steven Teo, Chief Partnership Distribution Officer, and shared how it now offers insurance specially for electric vehicles and uses “predictive underwriting” to enhance the customer experience with signing up for a new policy.
Despite there only being enough time for two questions for each, the panellists provided very substantial insights on the role of insurance for both today and tomorrow.
12.30pm: CPF Plays A Part In Protecting Singaporeans
The final session before the lunch break was perhaps one of the most interesting, and I’m not just saying that because my boss Mr Timothy Ho was one of the panellists. CPF is such an integral part of Singaporean life that it was good to hear from Mr Daniel Teo, Director, Policy from the CPF Board.
With emcee Ms Sonia Chew asking the important questions, Mr Teo touched on many important topics like CPF LIFE, voluntary CPF top-ups and how CPF continues to improve by enhancing coverage, increasing claim limits, introducing new schemes like the CPF LIFE Escalating Plan and other service level improvements including the newly launched Health Insurance Planner.
1PM: Lunch
After a content-packed morning session, it was time for lunch! As a CIMB customer, I had the privilege of staying in the event hall and enjoying some excellent food prepared by Suntec Singapore. There was a scrumptious vegetarian tortilla wrap, some barbecue chicken, bangers and mash and a yummy macaron for dessert.
CIMB customers were expected to identify themselves when buying tickets and receive their CIMB customer lanyard.
1:45pm: Queueing For The Breakout Room Session
In addition to the sessions at the main hall, I had also planned to attend the smaller talks in two smaller the breakout rooms. I was genuinely surprised to see how quickly a queue was forming ahead of Mr Timothy Ho’s session. This was the queue 15 minutes before the session began!
The room could only fit about 80 people so it was understandable why people were willing to queue more than 15 minutes before the session began. The packed session “Why There Is An EveryDay Investor In All Of Us” was a motivating and insightful one. Tim helped those in attendance to think about the difference between working and investing and how the latter had a passive income component.
He then made several investing concepts easily accessible by using the analogy of different ways of cooking fish!
The attendees were very engaged throughout the entire half-hour session and I’m sure many, like me, went back with a new appreciation of different investing strategies.
2.45pm: Experiencing The Booths And Winning Prizes
At this point of the event, I could’ve called it a day, but I was intrigued by how the sponsors’ booths were still attracting lots of attention, so I decided to visit each of them to see what the fuss was about.
To my surprise, the sponsors booths worked seamlessly together to create a very carnival-like atmosphere. There was no hard selling of products, but simply fun activities to encourage attendees to spend some time at each booth to win some prizes.
FWD Singapore’s booth was perhaps the most popular, with some of the longest queues. They had brought in vendor Partyinkers to do live digital printing of personalised luggage tags and tote bags. Attendees could design their own one-of-a-kind items using an assortment of clip art and text.
CIMB’s booth featured a dexterity buzz wire game, and Income’s booth challenged you to catch as many “fish” using a magnet. There were the very simple like the digital memory game at AIA’s booth, while Singlife’s booth activity – a vertical whack-a-mole type game was arguably the most challenging.
But perhaps the most unexpected was seeing Mr. Edmund Chen, the brand ambassador for Tokio Marine Insurance Group (Asia) in person!
4:05pm: The Woke Salaryman
Just before leaving the event, I had one more session in the main hall to attend. No F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) session is ever complete without the ever-popular duo of Mr He Ruiming and Mr Goh Wei Choon, co-founders of The Woke Salaryman.
As an early proponent of the F.I.R.E. movement in Singapore, Ruiming is as authoritative a voice as you can get on the topic. After a short introduction, they opened their session to questions from the floor, which led to many lively discussions about F.I.R.E. and their attitude towards it.
The insightful and often heartfelt sharing, coupled with fun banter between the two, was the perfect way to end the day.
This Is How Personal Finance Events Should Be Like
There is an understandable perception that insurance in Singapore equates to hard selling, but I feel InsureXpo by CIMB really succeeded in overturning that expectation and creating an educational and entertaining experience for all attendees.
The theme “From Protection To Prosperity” was reflected in many ways as Insurers actively encouraged everyone to take control of their financial future. Furthermore, through the sessions, they demonstrated very convincingly how insurance has a crucial part to play in every stage of life and how it was a necessary component of financial independence.
InsureXpo by CIMB 2025 was an experience I definitely would like to repeat. I’ve already RSVPed for next year’s event!
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