How it works
The trigger is an accident. CPF Board's guide to health insurance describes PA as paying a lump sum if someone is injured or disabled because of an accident, and notes that a claim can only be made for an accident. That's the line between PA and life, critical illness or medical cover, which pay for illness too.
What's inside a plan is the insurer's to set:
- what counts as an accident, and what's excluded
- how much is paid for death, and for each kind of permanent disability
- whether medical bills after an accident are repaid, and up to what limit
- any extras, such as a daily amount while in hospital
So the policy wording, not the plan's name, says what a given injury pays.
Two rules from outside the policy still apply. An accident and health policy with a death benefit can carry a beneficiary nomination under the Insurance Act. And a critical illness benefit sold as a rider on a PA policy follows LIA's standard critical illness definitions, like any other CI cover.
Worked example, with a made-up client: he breaks a wrist in a fall at home and needs surgery. A PA plan with medical cover may repay the bills up to its limit. If the injury leaves him with a permanent loss of use, the policy's schedule sets any lump sum. Warded with pneumonia instead, he'd get nothing from the PA plan, because an illness isn't an accident.
Where it shows up in your week
It comes up when a client asks "am I covered if I get hurt?". The CRM keeps what they asked and your reply on their page, so you can find it at the next review.
Related terms
Questions advisors ask
Sources
- CPF Board, Money Matters: health insurance and you: what personal accident insurance pays, page last updated 23 April 2026, read 27 September 2026
- Insurance Act 1966, section 131: policies a nomination can cover, current version as at 27 September 2026, read 27 September 2026
- LIA Singapore, LIA Critical Illness (CI) Framework 2024, Part 1 of 4: CI riders on PA policies in scope, 13 May 2025, read 27 September 2026