The funeral policy that won’t punish you for a bad month

Industry data shows that every year South Africans lose an estimated R6bn in value that was paid for funeral cover that lapsed. This happens not because they have suddenly stopped caring about protecting their families, but because life happened and payments were missed. This causes both clients and insurers to lose out.

For South Africans who earn irregular, seasonal, or informal income, this type of failure is now avoidable. Metropolitan’s No-Lapse Funeral Growth Planis what happens when an insurer decides that income that moves deserves a product that moves with it. We put some questions to Metropolitan’s head of product solutions Luke Nel about this exciting new product.

The product does exactly what it says in the name. It is funeral cover that does not lapse. It allows you to pay what you can when you can and grow your cover over time.

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Permanent means exactly that: after paying R1,500, a missed payment, a bad month, life happening, none of it can take the cover away. Take two people we studied closely in building this: one who lands a R20,000-R25,000 lump sum every few months, and another earning R4,000-R6,000 in season and far less out of it. Both can start with R200 or more on WhatsApp and build towards permanence at their own pace.

It is for the 12-million South Africans whose incomes are irregular, seasonal, or informal — the domestic worker, the entrepreneur, the hustler, the delivery driver, the person doing piece jobs. These are people who have always wanted to protect their families but have never had a product that understood how they actually earn. But it is also for the employer, for instance, who wants to give their domestic worker permanent cover. For the parent who wants to protect their adult child who is still finding their feet in the workplace.

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