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 them.
| Company | Premium |
| OutSurance Life | R 368 |
| 1Lifedirect | R 374 |
| Instant Life | R 178 |
| Altrisk (commission) | R 205 |
| Altrisk (no comm) | R 150 |
| Discovery (comm) | R 283 |
| Liberty (comm) | R 375 |
| Sanlam (comm) | R 380 |
| Met Odyssey (comm) | R 204 |
| Momentum (commission) | R 221 |
| Momentum (no comm) | R 187 |
Not only are the direct insurers more expensive than the traditional companies, but they are more expensive even at full commission and they claim to cut out all of that. Would love to hear an explanation from them on this. I think it might be bordering on misleading advertising.
There is only 1 direct insurer that really is cheaper but then you would not yet have heard of them because they have not yet spent millions on advertising – I guess that is why they are cheaper at this stage.
So for my money, if you want to go direct, then go to Instant Life, else use a broker – even at full commission you are better off (by far) than Outsurance or 1lifedirect.
