Insurers in Singapore have been resilient, effectively navigating industry challenges over the years, as well as adopting new regulatory requirements. As consumers evolve to seek choice, convenience, and personalisation in their products and services, so must insurers to ensure these changing needs are met while proving greater accessibility to insurance. As one of Singapore's leading composite insurance provider of life, health, and general insurance, NTUC Income constantly seeks to disrupt the industry by breaking the barriers of conventional insurance. This has led to an innovative, industry-first lifestyle-based insurance proposition that revolutionises the way consumers engage with, purchase, and obtain insurance in Singapore. One of the gamechangers is SNACK and its suite of innovation micro-insurance and investment propositions that has evolved in the last two years since its launch, growing alongside customers to provide lifestyle-based financial planning while building an ecosystem of like-minded partners who see the value of insurance. Designed for the digital-first generation who are largely first jobbers and millennials, as well as the underserved segments consisting of gig economy workers, SNACK reimagines the conventional way of obtaining insurance and investments, making it ‘invisible’ and embedded into the lifestyle of our users. Launched in June 2020, SNACK allows users to gradually build or stack their insurance coverage for Term Life, Personal Accident, or Critical Illness by paying micro-premiums at either $0.30, $0.50, or $0.70 as well as building investments from as low as $1. A micro-policy is issued when a micro-premium is paid, covering the insured for 360 days. Users can decide when and how frequently premiums are paid by linking them to their preferred lifestyle triggers, such as shopping, dining, taking public transport, or watching a movie. This offers consumers new freedom and flexibility in protecting themselves, just by going about their daily activities. This means that users can enjoy full autonomy over their financial journey, allowing them to start, stop or adjust their premiums anytime without any penalty fees. It also makes insurance more accessible and relevant to everyone, keeping it easily adaptable to different lifestyle needs and personal financial situations. SNACKUP was subsequently launched together with Visa to expand SNACK’s proposition, to allow consumers to build insurance coverage, contributed entirely by merchant and participating brands when they spend with their Visa cards. With every transaction consumers make at participating brands, such as foodpanda, the merchant contributes $100 worth of insurance coverage to the consumer’s insurance portfolio on SNACK as ‘rebates’, akin to how merchants would typically reward customers via points or cash rebates. This redefines the conventional channels of obtaining insurance, and also builds a community where these lifestyle SNACKUP brands can engage and build loyalty with consumers in a unique manner. SNACKFIT, which was launched end of last year, is a first-of-its-kind fitness and lifestyle proposition that offers bonus insurance coverage based on biological age. It is powered by ReMark’s Biological Age Model BAMTM, a proprietary dynamic underwriting algorithm derived from global reinsurance company SCOR’s ground-breaking study about the correlation between mortality and morbidity risk and five key metrics. The metrics – Steps, Active Calories, Resting Heart Rate, Sleep Hours, and BMI – retrieved from linked fitness trackers, such as Garmin and Apple Watch, are then used to calculate a person’s biological age. Following this, the consumer will receive bonus insurance coverage on their micro policies if their biological age is lower than their actual age. SNACKFIT ultimately encourages healthy lifestyles and empowers users to take control of their health and fitness, complementing our growing ecosystem of fitness and health-related partners. To further complement our existing insurance products, SNACK Investment was launched to provide a more holistic financial planning experience at our users’ fingertips. SNACK Investment is the industry’s first micro investment-linked plan (ILP), and adopts a stackable approach that allows consumers to build their investment portfolios with bite-sized premiums while providing insurance coverage as they go about their daily lives. Unlike conventional ILPs, SNACK Investment lowers the barriers to entry and offers flexibility since premiums start at $1 and users can invest, stop, and adjust premiums on the app. It also provides withdrawal flexibility at no additional fees and accidental death coverage with the sum assured pegged at 105% of the net premiums paid. By linking their desired micro-premium (ranging from $1 to $10) to their selected lifestyle activities such as grocery shopping and taking public transport, it allows consumers to build up their investment portfolio seamlessly and almost invisibly via their lifestyle activities. SNACKUP Investment also allows users to accumulate free investment credits ($0.20) for each transaction made with participating brands, like cashback (but better!), further enhancing how these brands can engage and reward loyal customers. In the coming months, SNACK Investment will be expanded to allow greater flexibility to customers by allowing them to customise their portfolio through fund switching. As we mark our 2nd anniversary, we will be launching SNACK 3.0 which will see a major revamp of the app interface and features. This signifies our effort to constantly push boundaries and challenge the status quo with new customer data and insights in reimagining insurance to bridge the protection gap. One of the new features include a Group Challenge, where users form groups to complete challenges (such as accumulating 10,000 steps a day), and emerging winners stand to win attractive prizes. This Group Challenge adds a new dimension to how we engage users, by allowing user groups to form a collective identity and cultivate a sense of belonging, by completing challenges with the shared goal of emerging as the winner amongst competitors. Ever since our first expansion of SNACK’s proposition at the end of last year, we have doubled both our active users and total sum assured to reach 75,000 users and $300m sum assured respectively in a short span of 10 months. With the goal of scaling our ecosystem, we have also accumulated close to 1500 touchpoints around the island. All these signifies an important milestone for us as we continuously strive to rethink how insurance and investments can be more simple, accessible, and convenient.