Calgro Makes Foray into Funeral Insurance

In seeking to shore up its volatile revenue from property, Calgro M3, a residential property development company, is dipping its toes into the insurance industry.

Its first venture into the industry will be offering a funeral policy in conjunction with Hollard Insurance. Holders of this policy will be able to bury their departed loved ones at any Calgro M3 Memorial Park.

The policy is not yet available to the public. That’s because the two parties are still ironing out the finer details of the deal. They will make an announcement soon. After that, they will develop and open a few more memorial parks next year.

Calgro Memorial Park – Easing the burial Congestion

Calgro M3’s unveiled its first memorial park on the outskirts of Johannesburg not too long ago. It was a way for the company to kill two birds with one stone. Calgro would make use of land it could not develop while helping ease the congestion at municipal burial sites.

It has also turned into an additional source of income. Like the other parks scheduled for construction, Nasrec Memorial Park offers South Africans a secure place where they can lay their loved ones to rest. On top of that, Calgro will maintain these graveyards better than the public ones and provide them to people of all income groups.

Everyone from top level executives to casual labourers will find a space to suit them at Calgro’s burial sites. And there is a funeral plan to match.

Cheap Funeral Cover from Calgro

For just R299 per month, the Calgro funeral policy offers you cover for yourself, your spouse and up to five children for 30,000 Rand. On top of this, you will get R7,500 for a tombstone as well as a R200,000 burial support plan that will also take care of after-burial expenses.

If you think R299 is expensive, consider the fact that you would have to save that much for more than 50 years to get to the value of the cover. The product is suits different income levels and different age groups.

By targeting the younger segment of the market, Calgro M3 has ensured itself of a longer-term source of income to supplement its gains from property development which tend to fluctuate.

For now, though the bulk of the collections from the annuity will be channelled towards establishing enough burial sites to cater for all policyholders. But with time the income from the funeral policy is forecasted to increase. And as their coffers are boosted by this revenue, the company will be able to undertake bigger development projects.

As it stands, Calgro M3 is not in a precarious position, though. It has been the best-performing stock on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the past five years. The value of its share price has jumped by more than 10% in the course of the past month.

Burial Spaces

But the company is still looking to generate short-term revenue by selling burial spaces from its parks. In the meantime, it is also pushing its funeral insurance product using Hollard’s existing machinery. The aim is to sell up to 50,000 policies every year.

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All info was correct at time of publishing