A short while back, we wrote about what we see as the iniquitous selling of funeral policies to the poor and vulnerable. It’s our view that there’s a significantly better way to do it through the use of a properly underwritten whole-of-life policy.
One of the serious consequences of people buying (being sold) a funeral policy instead of life cover is that there is no estate at death. For roughly the same premium, someone could get either R20k funeral cover, or R300k life cover (which includes R40k funeral cover).
In the first instance, when they die there will be R20k for funeral expenses, and nothing else. Nothing for the family, nothing for the kids, nothing for schooling … nothing. Just more social grant recipients in the making.
In the second instance, there will still be R260k left over after the funeral that can be used to support and maintain those left behind. For a slightly bigger premium, this amount could easily be doubled (in our experience, people who have funeral cover tend to have more than one policy).
How is it acceptable that funeral cover is still the “preferred” cover that is forced onto the vulnerable in society?
