Partners and distinguished guests
1 Good morning! Very happy to be here this morning with all of you: our valued volunteers and partners.
2 First, a big word of thanks to all of you! Because your dedication has been instrumental in promoting the importance of legacy planning and in supporting Deputies, which is especially important as we are soon becoming a “super aged” society.
OPGO Assist
3 Our journey started several years ago. In November 2022, we launched the Office of the Public Guardian Online portal, or OPGO. One of the improvements offered by this system is that court-appointed Deputies can file their reports online. While most Deputies appreciated the convenience, we recognised that some of them may be less comfortable with digital technologies and needed more support.
4 To address this need, we introduced the OPGO Assist programme, offering Deputies personalised guidance for online report filing. The programme's success is only possible because of the dedication of law students from our three law schools: NUS, SMU and SUSS. Since the launch of OPGO, your combined efforts have helped a total of 371 Deputies. I look forward to hearing the students share their experience later.
Legacy Planning Campaign
5 Besides deputy report filing, a significant improvement that OPGO enabled is that you can now apply for a Lasting Power of Attorney or LPA online. Gone is the cumbersome process of filling in a hard copy application and physically sending to your donors to sign.
6 In July 2023, AIC, MOH, MSF and the Public Service Division came together to launch a concerted campaign to raise awareness of the importance of legacy planning. Besides the LPA, we also want to encourage Singaporeans to make an Advance Care Plan or ACP.
7 Over the past year, together with our partners, we held 7 roadshows and 12 mobile clinics. The mobile clinics offered pro bono LPA certification and ACP facilitation sessions to Singapore citizens aged 50 years and above, who are CHAS blue or orange card holders. MOH and AIC also organised more than 80 workshops at Active Ageing Centres across Singapore to educate seniors about the importance of legacy planning.
8 Now, at this juncture, I would like to express my gratitude to the universities and Temasek Polytechnic and the students for volunteering at the roadshows and mobile clinics.
9 I would also like to thank our valued partners with us today. I hope this list can expand even further after today: Citibank, Fei Yue Community Services, Great Eastern, Insurance and Financial Practitioners Association of Singapore, J.P. Morgan Singapore, MUIS, PEGUAM, Pro Bono SG and Society of Sheng Hong Welfare Services, and thank you to all of you for championing the pre-planning cause. Some of you organised pro bono LPA certification and ACP facilitation sessions. Others promoted the importance of legacy planning at your events and through your outreach channels.
Wider outreach through partnerships to encourage Singaporeans to embark on Legacy Planning
10 At the launch of the legacy planning campaign in July last year, Minister Masagos shared our aim to have 240,000 Singaporeans aged 50 and above make their LPA by end-2025. I am pleased to share this morning that we are well on track to exceed that target.
11 Since the start of the campaign, 56,000 Singaporeans in this age group have completed their LPAs, bringing the total to 233,000. During the same period, over 13,000 ACPs were made, bringing the total number of ACPs that has been made so far to 50,000.
12 This is an extremely commendable achievement. I would like to reiterate my appreciation for the over 200 partners and volunteers who worked with us, journeyed with us and made this possible, because without you, we would not have been able to do this alone.
13 But we must not stop here. The majority of Singaporeans, including many seniors, have yet to make their LPA and ACP. There is a need to drive greater awareness, dispel misperceptions, and to normalise conversations about legacy planning among our families.
14 In the next phase of our campaign, we will expand our partnerships to reach out to even more individuals and families. For instance, we are looking to have students conduct LPA talks and develop public education materials. Such materials will explain what an LPA is and the responsibilities of Donees in simple-to-understand language. And we hope to working more closely with existing partners, and to invite new partners to join us.
15 In addition, we intend to promote a wider set of legacy planning instruments beyond the LPA and ACP, to include wills and CPF nominations. This will help Singaporeans to plan ahead more comprehensively for their own future.
Conclusion
16 To conclude, once again, a big thank you to all our volunteers and partners for your steadfast support. Your role is pivotal, particularly in safeguarding the future well-being of our nation and our seniors. In this Year of Celebrating Volunteers, we invite more individuals to join us in this very meaningful cause. Together, we can share with fellow Singaporeans about the importance of legacy planning, offering them and their loved ones the invaluable gift of certainty for their own futures.
17 On that note, I wish everyone a wonderful Friday! Thank you.