Following on from my post last week about direct insurers being so much more expensive than normal insurance companies (even at full commission) I thought I would get a few quotes from them. I asked for R1million life cover for a 44 year old male, non-smoker, top income and health bracket and this is what we got back. We also tried to compare apples with apples and so the premium escalation structure is a simialr as we could get...

There seems to be a big drive by the direct life insurers at the moment with vast amounts of money being spent on some very expensive prime time television advertising…Outsurance Life is the latest culprit. The direct insurers may differ slightly but their big claims are all the same…”cut out the middleman”, “no broker, no commission”. The (not so hidden) message is that using a broker is expensive and therefore...

According to research conducted by True South Actuaries & Consultants and the Unisa Bureau of Market Research, South Africans are hopelessly underinsured for death and disability. This is not new research or the first time that this conclusion has been reached. But what is new is that for the first time, at least as far as I can remember, they have actually released the numbers behind the research and as result we can know the number of...

I have long been an advocate of people doing their own financial planning. Far too many vested interests in the industry would have us believe that Financial Planning is too complex for individuals to do their own and that as a result they need the services of an advisor/financial planner. Bollocks I say. There is so much common sense involved that just about anyone with a brain and some time and effort could do their own financial planning...

About 2 weeks ago I responded to an online advert by OUTsurance for Life cover at significantly reduced premiums (because they were cutting out the advisor and therefore the commission). Within “minutes” I received the following email from them acknowledging my request for a quote: “Thank you for requesting an insurance quote from OUTsurance! We are committed to AWESOME service and will do our best to quote a premium that really suits...