Compare the Best SRS Annuity Endowment Insurance Plans in Singapore (2026)

How a SRS Annuity Plan Works

A SRS endowment/annuity plan is a single premium insurance plan bought with funds from your Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account. You set aside a lump sum, let it grow until your selected retirement age, and then receive a monthly income, made up of guaranteed and non-guaranteed amounts, over a fixed payout period. Most plans pay out for 10 years, and that is no accident. It matches the 10-year window SRS gives you to make penalty-free withdrawals.

Why choose insurance at all? The main reason to contribute to SRS is to save on income tax. But the relief is only half the benefit. SRS cash left idle earns just 0.05% per year, so leaving it untouched until your retirement age lets inflation erase most of what you saved.

Investing the money is the obvious fix, but market investments carry their own risk. A downturn in your retirement years can leave your SRS balance below what you put in, right when you need to draw on it.

A SRS annuity sits in the middle. Most plans are capital guaranteed at maturity, so your principal is protected if you hold the plan to the end, and it earns more than idle cash. As of December 2025, about 20% of all SRS monies were held in insurance plans.

You can’t buy just any policy, though. MOF’s conditions only allow single premium products, with life cover capped at three times the premium. Critical illness, health, and long-term care plans are excluded. That’s why insurers design these plans with negligible protection and gear everything towards retirement income instead.

Three features stand out for conservative savers:

• Most plans are capital guaranteed at maturity, so you won’t lose your principal if you hold the plan to the end (early surrender is a different story, and usually means getting back less than you put in)
• A guaranteed income you can plan your retirement around, with non-guaranteed bonuses on top
• Guaranteed acceptance, so no medical underwriting and no health questions

The policy is also covered by the Policy Owners’ Protection Scheme run by SDIC, subject to caps, in the unlikely event the insurer fails.

Combined guaranteed and non-guaranteed returns typically target around 2% to 3.5% per year, depending on the plan and how long it accumulates and pays out. Treat these as illustrations, not promises.

The Tax Advantage of a SRS Annuity

This is where an annuity earns its place over the other SRS investment options.

Every payout from the plan flows back into your SRS account, where it isn’t taxed. Tax only applies when you withdraw. Do that on or after the statutory retirement age (the one in force when you first contributed into your SRS account), and only 50% of each withdrawal is taxable, with no penalty.

With no other income, you can withdraw up to $40,000 a year at $0 tax, because only half of it counts as income and the first $20,000 of chargeable income is taxed at nothing. A SRS annuity paying around $3,000 a month keeps you comfortably within that mark, spread neatly across the 10-year withdrawal window.

Even if you do have other income in retirement, such as rental or part-time earnings, spreading the withdrawals over 10 years still helps. Singapore’s income tax is progressive, so a smaller amount added to your income each year is taxed at a lower rate than one large lump sum in a single year.

Choosing Your Retirement Age and Payout Period

Two settings shape everything else in the plan.

The first is the age your payouts start. Set it at or after your statutory retirement age, which is the retirement age in force when you made your first SRS contribution (64 for first contributions from 1 July 2026, and heading to 65 by 2030). Not every plan can start paying at 63 or 64, but most offer 65, which in my opinion is a sensible default because it sits above every cohort’s threshold.

The second is how long the payouts run. Depending on the plan, you can choose 10, 15, or 20 years, and some pay for life. The longer the payout period, the lower the monthly income for the same premium. A 10-year payout from 65 is the most common choice because it lines up with the SRS withdrawal window, and it concentrates the income in the years you are most likely to enjoy it.