Let's look at some of the questions you may have about funeral cover.
City Press reader Kate Tau’s brother died in June after a long illness. She writes: “My brother passed on in June and there was no money to bury him, even though we knew that he was struggling with diabetes for years.
“The reason I did not make any attempt to plan for his funeral is the stigma behind the belief ‘lefu la hao le a mpedisa’ – that you make money from the death of a family member if you have a funeral plan for them. “This is still haunting me when I think of taking out funeral cover for other family members.
“I think a funeral plan should be about easing the financial burden and, most of the time, it is the service itself that is more important than worrying about catering and all other things that we worry about.”
However, Kate is worried about adding family members to her funeral plan, thereby making it more expensive. She also notes that, “at the best of times, families don’t discuss these matters and don’t inform each other of their funeral plans”.
Kate’s question boils down to this: “Which is cheaper? Adding my family to my existing plan or letting them have their own funeral plans and finance them so that, in the event of them dying before me, I can be able to bury them?”
Families should ideally discuss and agree on who will assume “financial responsibility” for which member(s) of the family. The person who assumes this financial responsibility should accept the responsibility based on their ability to afford the financial obligation.
Their ability to pay for the financial obligation may be done from savings, a funeral cover policy or another suitable financial product to help deal with any sudden lump sum payment that would negatively impact their monthly cash flow.
The Capitec funeral cover plan, underwritten by Centriq Life, allows the person who has assumed financial responsibility to cover a family of up to 21 members, namely:
Our plan offers a payout of the cover amount as selected by the client in order to fulfil their assumed financial obligations. This gives the client control over the funeral arrangements.
Our plan has other benefits designed to help the client keep and maintain their funeral plan, like the newborn premium waiver, whereby we pay your premiums for six months while recognising that the family will have reduced income due to the policyholder or spouse being on maternity leave.
The policyholder can add lives and related cover amounts within the funeral plan framework as described in point two.
You can also choose a premium that you can afford, and the cover amounts will automatically adjust proportionally. You can continue to play with the estimate tool until you find the most optimal funeral plan of insured lives, cover amount and affordability.
The estimate tool is available in Capitec branches, via our contact centre (086 010 2043) and the app.
This article is in partnership with City Press and paid for by Capitec.
