The Best Funeral Plan for When You Hit Rock Bottom

In South Africa, most funeral plans are available to anyone who is 18 and older. You should buy a funeral plan once you have seen funeral plan quotes. The insurance company won’t be able to arbitrarily amend the terms and conditions of your policy. That is, without first bringing any changes to your attention.  They will also have to make sure that you still want to continue with the plan.

Cover your entire family by adding Immediate or Extended Family cover to your funeral plan. Funeral plans in South African can still include your family after you have died. That is, provided your family continues to pay the funeral cover premiums each month. Some funeral insurers will give families a year of free cover following the policy holder’s death.

Consider Cost of Funeral Before Choosing a Plan

There are many considerations when arranging a funeral. And your choices, whether you want a no-frills funeral or you want something elaborate, will determine the cost. The bill will be high; that’s for sure. Get funeral plan quotes now, so you are not out of pocket.

Do make sure that those selling you the funeral policy have a license from the Financial Services Board (FSB). Or you may find yourself paying for products and services you never receive.

Some costs to consider –

• the coffin or casket. Prices vary widely depending on the type of coffin you choose. There are the junior range coffins or adult range, lid configurations, type of wood, whether its Pine or solid Rosewood, the kind of handles. These all influence the price.
• funeral transportation
• flowers
• burial plot – burial or cremation fees
• clergy/celebrant fees
• death certificate
• grave market
• venue hire and catering

 

What to Look Out for with a Funeral Plan

• Find out if you can make changes to your policy after it has started. Because who knows, you may want to add certain people to the policy or even change your cover amount
• Understand the premium structure. Do your premiums increase as you get older? Or do they stop at the cover amount you selected at the onset?
• Make sure you tell those who are to receive the funeral policy benefit payment. That’s because the payment will go to the beneficiary specified in your policy

Why You Should Get Funeral Plan Quotes

Without a funeral plan in place, have you considered the implications of a pauper burial? In South Africa bodies pile up in mortuaries because of the backlog. Many bodies lie stacked on shelves or in open-plan refrigerators.

Sometimes the only person to witness the pauper’s passing will be a South African representative. It is a costly business to die for sure, but a funeral plan can help you avoid this pauper dilemma. All it requires is a small amount each month for a funeral policy so that when you pass away, for those left behind, planning your funeral is not a nightmare.

To get Funeral Plan Quotes just complete and send the form on this page

In South Africa funerals can vary, but even a pretty basic funeral can start in the region of R7 000, and depending on one’s budget and what trimmings they require, they can go up in price to 30, 40 or R50 000  in price. There are some South Africans who know too well that a funeral is worth 4 or 5 months salary.

The best way is to plan ahead – do your research carefully and find out what each of the leading funeral plan providers in South Africa offers.

Who are the Leading Funeral Plan Providers in South Africa?

• Metropolitan Funeral Plan – their Flexible Plan provides affordable funeral cover for your whole family. You can receive a lump sum of up to R50 000. The Plan allows anyone over the age of 18 to join and they pay out claims in 48 hours.
• AVBOB funeral plans – AVBOB were established in 1921 and have more than 1.4 million policyholders. There are no medical exams to join, and payments are made within 48 hours and funeral cover starts at just R31 per month. Pay for one child, and your other children are covered free of charge. Lots of free benefits included.
• Hollard Funeral Plans – cover from R5 000 to R50 000. No medical tests. Acceptance of the Hollard policy is guaranteed if you are under the age of 76. A key benefit of the Hollard Funeral Plan is their money back benefit – you receive a lump sum of up to one year’s premiums after every five years. There are other optional benefits available such as their useful Hollard Groceries Plan.

 

More Great Plans

• Kaizer Chiefs Funeral Plan – cover ranges from R10 000 to R50 000. Added benefits include the double pay-out for the Accidental Death Benefit as well as their Monthly Provider Benefit where you get up t R1 200 grocery benefit to help the family cope for a year after one’s death.
• Doves Group – established in 1883 – their  products range from R5 000 to R50 000 cover. They offer some plans for as little as R30 a month. They are one of the largest funeral directing companies in South Africa with more than 150 branches in all nine provinces.
• Assupol Life –  an authorised financial services provider established in 1913. They were the first to introduce the 48-hour-claim turn-around. Their Excellence Family Funeral Plan starts from just R70 a month with a maximum benefit cover of R50 000.

 

More About Funeral Plans

Death can bring about a lot of grief as you try to come to terms with the world without your loved one in it. Without a funeral plan in place, if you’re not particularly wealthy, it can bring about plenty of

financial grief too. Many people equate planning ahead for a funeral as morbid and something that should only be considered as you get old. But death has no respect for gender or age and it can come for you if you’re nine months old or 90 years old.  Having a funeral plan in place can lessen the dreadful impact when it comes unexpectedly.

Everybody is different, which is why you get different funeral plan quotes.

• each funeral home offers different plans in table form to help you compare
• premiums differ with each plan – choose the one that suits your budget
• you’ve got choices with funeral plan quotes – burial or cremation
• standard plans cover a basic, traditional funeral
• premier plans are more comprehensive and come with value added benefits which can be put to use while you’re still alive

When a loved one dies, having to make funeral arrangements without any idea of where to begin can be unnerving. For starters, should you give the person a burial or cremation? Would they have wanted their ashes to be scattered, and where? Would they want a religious funeral with hymns and Bible readings? Maybe they would have preferred a non-religious ceremony with no music and no flowers. In the 21st century, with so much emphasis on environmentally friendly products and services, maybe they would have preferred a ‘green’ funeral.

Can you see how important it is to have a funeral plan prepared for your loved ones, as it can save plenty of indecision and unhappiness? Simply prepare a plan early of what you would like, and tell someone you trust exactly where you will store it so that they can put the plans into process without any indecisiveness. The family will then have all the funeral guidance in writing so that they have the funeral that the deceased wanted.

How to Get a Funeral Plan Quote

It is important to compare funeral plan quotes before you buy a funeral plan policy. That is important because you don’t want to start paying for a policy and then discover that you can’t continue with it because it costs too much.

Compare quotes so that you can select the one that will give you the cover and benefits you need. What needs do you have? Some people may think that waiting 48 hours for your money to be paid out is just too long. They, therefore, would like to consider a funeral plan from Discovery Health which pays out in 24 hours.

Price is always going to be a deciding factor when looking at different funeral plan quotes. But how does one get a funeral plan quote?

• quite a few funeral homes put a funeral cover quote calculator on their website where you choose a funeral plan, and the calculator tells you how much the premium will be.
• you can also get a quick quote by entering your details on the online form which appears on the funeral services provider’s website. The form isn’t complex at all to fill in and requires details such as your name, address, age, gender, etc. Once you fill in the form and submit it, a consultant will be in touch with you.
• there are some funeral cover comparison websites where you can compare funeral plans yourself. You’ll be able to compare funeral plans where the premium starts at R25 a month as well as other plans that are R70 a month or R125 a month. Along with the prices will be the benefits. These comparison websites can save you a lot of time and effort from having to look up different websites yourself. The sites aren’t affiliated with any particular funeral homes or directors, and you can just choose the plan you like.

 

Some General Information on Funeral Plans

Question: If you miss a payment, is your funeral cover cancelled?

Answer: Unfortunately yes. Funeral cover isn’t like a credit card where you can take a chance on missing a payment when times are tough or paying a little less. Funeral insurers in South Africa all have their terms and conditions, and some are more lenient than others, allowing you some grace period to bring your outstanding funeral cover up to date. Non-payment of a premium usually results in the termination of your policy.  While you are paying all your funeral insurance premiums each month, your funeral plan remains valid till you die.

Question: Can a terminated funeral policy be reinstated?

Answer: Yes, the only thing is that you will have to abide with certain waiting periods before your cover is fully re-instated. There are waiting periods with funeral cover and benefits will only be paid out within 3 to 12 months depending, from the commencement of the policy in the case of a natural death and as much as 24 months with a suicide.

Question: Are There Exclusions with a Funeral Plan?

Answer: Yes, typically funeral insurers won’t pay out if they detect that there were criminal acts involved or you’ve provided them with false or misleading information in your claim.

Conclusion

When you buy a funeral policy, make sure you buy from a reputable insurance provider so that you understand the waiting periods and the exclusions. Make sure you receive a receipt for each payment you make as well.

It is so important to read your policy contract thoroughly. Remember, if you do buy a funeral plan, study it within the first month. When the policy is issued, you will be provided with a summary of the conditions and requirements relating to the policy. You will still be allowed to cancel it within 30 days without incurring any payments if you decide it doesn’t meet your expectations.

Funeral plans vary widely when it comes to the cover, the benefits, and the premiums and how fast the claims are paid. The amount of cover you choose when you get funeral plan quotes depends on your needs, but it pays to take out your policy from time to time. This is to make sure that the policy you have is keeping pace with inflation, so that come the death of a loved one, you’re not dealt a double blow.

Please complete and send the form on this page to get funeral plan quotes

All info was correct at time of publishing April 19, 2016