Why we charge for our Accelerated Funeral Benefit

So you’re in two minds about buying life insurance?

You’re on a tight budget at the moment. You’ve basically got R200 a month which you can spend on insurance, and right now you have to decide between life insurance and funeral cover.

Yes, life insurance is definitely more value for money, but that doesn’t help much if the cover only pays out a month later. At least with funeral cover you’ll know that your family can afford to bury you within 48 hours. They can arrange the funeral and pay whatever else needs to be paid without any stress.

It makes sense, right? And for us at Different Life, it does as well. It’s not as if you can postpone a funeral until you can arrange a loan.

This is true story:

Rachel’s (Not her real name) husband passed away unexpectedly. There’s absolutely no funeral cover in place since he was unemployed and depending on her for support. He suffers a massive heart attack in a shopping centre and the paramedics are called. He is declared dead on the scene, and left right there.

So what would you do in Rachel’s situation? Her husband is lying on the floor – it’s a Saturday afternoon – and they have no insurance. Who does she call? Fortunately for her, someone standing close by knows an undertaker. Rachel calls them, fortunately someone’s there, and they agree to come out and fetch him.

Traumatic, don’t you agree? We know this is something no-one wants to think about, but it happens each and every day.

Rachel meets with the funeral director on Monday morning and negotiations begin. There’s:

The cost of transportation from the scene.
The cost of transport to and from the funeral itself
The cost of flowers
The choice of casket and urn
The decision on whether to bury or cremate and the cost thereof
The cost of the brochures at the service
Fortunately no autopsy was required as this would have added five thousand Rand to the bill.
Rachel opted for a cremation, and in her case, the cost of all the above came in at just below R12, 000.

And this didn’t include the cost of providing refreshments at the funeral service and paying a minister for the use of his facility and conducting the service.

Desperate, Rachel approached her employer and asked for assistance. Fortunately for her, her employer has a fund for just such emergencies and so the story has a semi happy ending, but what if they didn’t? What would you have done?

Make a loan at a bank. What if she didn’t qualify because of a bad credit score?
Approach family members. What if there were no family members or what if they didn’t have the finances to assist?
The last option - a pauper’s funeral?

The reality is that everyone needs a funeral plan. The question we at Different Life asked was whether it was fair to force someone into an ‘either it’s going to be life insurance or it’s going to be a funeral benefit’ decision.

Different Life decided to make it easy by offering an accelerated funeral benefit.

How our accelerated funeral benefit works

We charge a small additional cost to add the benefit. At this point in time it costs R10 to R15 a month depending on your age.
We pay R50, 000 of your life cover amount to your family within 48 hours of receiving all the necessary documents.
The balance of your life insurance is paid out once the claim has been finalised

Why charge for the funeral benefit?

Well consider the fact that we’re paying the R50, 000 with no questions asked. In other words, we’re not going to investigate why you died – we’re just going to pay. If the remainder of your claim was rejected, then too bad for us - we’ve already paid out.

What if I die from natural causes?

In another article we wrote about the waiting periods relevant to most funeral policies. In a nutshell, a 6 month waiting period usually applies to death by natural causes. A Different Life policy will pay the R50, 000 to your beneficiary within those first 6 months regardless of cause - Remember our ‘no questions asked’ clause?

What sort of paperwork is needed to claim?

Two options:

You could either call us on 010 020 1921 or
Email us at claims@differentlife.co.za.

All claims are registered telephonically and there are no unnecessary forms for your family to complete.

The only paperwork we would need is:

A certified copy of your ID
A certified copy of your beneficiaries ID
A certified copy of your death certificate

Who is the ideal candidate for the accelerated funeral benefit?

Everyone actually! Here’s why:

Take for instance the single person.

Why own two policies – one for life insurance and another for funeral cover – when you can own just one? And R50, 000 as a funeral benefit is nothing to sneeze at. Where else will you get R50, 000 funeral cover for R11 a month?

And then there’s the person with dependants.

In their case they’d need to own two policies – one for life insurance and one for funeral cover – but they’d still have an extra R50, 000 paid out by the Different Life policy. That’s R50, 000 on top of whatever the funeral policy pays. And once again, R11 a month for R50, 000 funeral cover is dirt cheap in anyone’s books.

Let’s summarise everything you’re getting:

R50, 000 of your life insurance advanced to your beneficiary
Paid within 48 hours of receiving all the documents we need – no questions asked
You enjoy immediate cover from the day we receive your first premium – no 6 month waiting period, and
It costs under R20 a month