Insurance companies will calculate the odds that you will be alive tomorrow, and for the next year. They are a casino where you can place a bet on your life. You give them a deposit, and they offer your heirs a fixed consolation prize if you lose. They want you to live a long time. The longer you live, the more premiums you pay before they have to give over the prize. In this case they are on your side, wishing you a long life.

Insurance companies also have a sideline called annuities. In this case you give them a large sum of money, and they give it back in small increments every month for as long as you live. This is a bet that you won't live long, because if you die the payments stop. The sooner you die the better for them. You don't want to bet with anyone who has an interest in your early demise. This is a risk you can avoid.

The government is advertising an annuity scheme as a choice to EPF members. Why is this offer being made just now? The EPF is a really big pile of cash. A very tempting sight to those who have a taste for the material aspects of life. So long as the money is in the EPF it is there with your name on it, and you can visit it whenever you like. When you reach retirement you can use it like a high yielding savings account.

The EPF managers have shown that they are competent money managers. They have stood firm against forceful attempts to attack the public retirement funds. Until now. They have not objected strongly to the annuity program. This is not a good sign. Instead of safeguarding your money, they are allowing the funds to be removed and given to third parties. Shame on them.

Who are the third parties? They are corporations. A corporation is given a fictional identity as though it were a person. It has all the rights of a person in the law. Corporations are managed by executives. The executives have a duty to conduct the business in an effort to make a profit for the shareholders. The shareholders. That is not you. Many times the shareholders are the executives themselves. Or their friends. The idea is to make a legitimate profit for the shareholders using ethical practices and standard accounting methods.

Sometimes the executives are incompetent. Sometimes they deliberately abscond with the corporation's money. The corporation then goes bankrupt. Everyone loses. The shareholders lose. And everyone who has given them money loses. That is where you come in. If you have given them your money for an annuity, they have your money. Now they have lost it. "Too bad," they say. There is no recourse. The money is gone.

This is a risk you need not take. Leave your money in the EPF. And tell them to stop playing around with the insurance companies. Their duty is to safeguard your funds. They have done an excellent job. But they also have a duty to provide you with competent advice. They have not done this in the matter of the annuity scheme.

Let me say it again. Leave your money in the EPF. It is safest there. The annuity scheme entails an unknown risk of losing your money. You need not take this risk. There is no offsetting reward. Leave your money in the EPF. It is invested in high-grade bonds. It will increase in value with time. It will be there when you retire. Don't give it to a third party. Big insurance companies do go bankrupt.