For some years now, my wife and I have had some Manulife insurance policies each.

In the past, printed hard copy statements and notices were sent by mail.

Some time back, via the Manulife e-portal, I opted to go paperless.

It was stated clearly that only monthly, quarterly and annual statements would be paperless and that a hard copy version of premium notices would still be mailed.

I prefer my premium notices in hard copy and not through e-mail as such an important message may get lost in the deluge of e-mails I receive daily.

However, I recently found out that Manulife had quietly included premium notices in the paperless system when I received an SMS informing me of an overdue premium payment.

I was surprised that I had an overdue payment as I had not received any hard copy premium notices.

If I had missed the SMS, my policy would have lapsed, wasting my years of premium payments and reducing protection for my family in times when they would have needed it most.

It is unprofessional for Manulife to send premium notices by soft copy only without even informing customers of the change.

Such major changes to important notifications by companies should not be done like this, catching customers off-guard and compromising their protection.

Vincent Ho Ching Mun