Education Funding for International Schools & Overseas Study

International school in the Philippines, then perhaps university in the UK, Australia, the US or elsewhere. Fees run for many years, often in a currency you don't earn in. A little structure early on makes the later years much calmer.

Start with the timeline

Before any talk of plans, it helps to write down, for each child:

• how many years until each stage starts: primary, secondary, university;
• where each stage is likely to be, in the Philippines or abroad;
• which currency the fees will probably be charged in;
• who is expected to pay: parents, grandparents, or a family business.

Even a rough version shows when the heaviest years overlap, which is usually the point that needs the most thought.

Currency matters as much as cost

If fees will be paid in pounds, dollars or euros and your income is in pesos, or the other way round, exchange-rate movements change what you need. Pru Life UK plans are offered in Philippine pesos, and some in US dollars. Whether a dollar plan makes sense depends on where the fees will be paid and where your income comes from. A currency that matches the bill is not automatically the right choice, and neither is the one you earn in.

Protect the plan, not just the fund

For many families the biggest risk to an education plan is not the markets. It is the person paying for it. If the parent who pays dies or becomes seriously ill, the fees don’t stop.

That is why I look at two things together: life cover on the paying parent for the years the fees will run, and what happens to the education plan itself if premiums can no longer be paid. On some Pru Life UK plans, the optional Payor Waiver of Premium Benefit applies where the person paying premiums is not the insured (for example, a parent paying for a child). It waives remaining premiums if the payor dies or becomes totally and permanently disabled. Riders are attached to an eligible base plan, and availability depends on the plan chosen.

Where Pru Life UK plans can fit

• Term life cover from the Life Protection range, sized to the remaining fee years, so the plan can be finished if a parent is not there to finish it.
• Investment-linked (VUL) plans, such as the PRULink Elite Protector Series, a regular-pay investment-linked life plan designed to be held for the long term, in pesos or US dollars. These are life insurance with an investment-linked component, not savings accounts. Fund values are not guaranteed, and they can be lower than you hoped in the year the fees fall due, which matters when the timing is fixed.
• Endowment plans, such as PRUSteady Income, which combines life cover with regular cash payouts in the later years of the policy and a lump sum at maturity. Whether those dates line up with your school years depends on the plan’s terms, which I go through with you.

No single plan suits every family. In a meeting I go through Pru Life UK’s official documents with you, including the charges and, for VUL plans, how fund values can rise and fall.

Questions worth asking of any plan

• When can money be taken out, and what does it cost to do so in the early years?
• Which currency are premiums and benefits paid in?
• What happens if a premium is missed, or if we move abroad? (See the FAQ.)
• Who owns the policy, who is insured, and who is the beneficiary?
• What happens to the plan if the person paying dies or can no longer work?