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Category:
Insurance
News /
Life
Insurance /
Sanlam Sky Solutions / July 2010
Funeral Policies: Your Questions Answered
The death of a family member is always a painful time. But the
grieving process can be made so much harder if you are left with
complicated, expensive funeral arrangements to make or debt to pay.
Knowing
exactly how to choose a funeral policy is the best way to make sure
the process is as simple as possible.
This
will assist you or your family to spend time in arranging the
funeral and providing emotional support to each other, instead of
worrying about funding the funeral costs.
Thabo Msimango, regional manager at Sanlam Sky Solutions, answers
some important questions about funeral policies so that you can have
the comfort that when the time comes, you and your family are taken
care of.
Why do I need a funeral policy?
A
funeral policy will help pay for your funeral or that of one of your
loved ones.
Funerals
are expensive and a funeral policy helps you pay the funeral costs
and, if the policy is big enough, clear debt.
Funeral policies allow for the burial of loved ones in a dignified
way without worrying about how they will pay the costs.
How do I choose the right one?
Before choosing a policy, you first need to look at your needs and
those of your family, both now and in the future.
Think about how many people there are in your family and consider
how much you can pay towards a funeral plan, without cutting back
too much on spending in other parts of your life.
You
then need to consider how much you will need to pay for the funeral
and what you will need to put away each month to be able to afford
that.
Once you have an idea of how much you can spend on a policy, you
should speak to a broker from a trusted insurance provider, such as
Sanlam Sky Solutions.
They
will advise on a policy to suit your needs. If you live in a more
remote area, many insurance companies have mobile offices situated
within the community.
For
example, Sanlam Sky Solutions and Channel Life, have rural offices
to cater for those without transport, living far from cities or
towns. They
also provide cellphone technology for the processing of new
customers and insurance claims in order to make the system work for
the community.
When should I take one out?
You should take out a funeral policy as early in life as possible.
Even
if you start with a small policy benefit, e.g. R5 000, you can
increase the amount allocated for funerals in your policy by
increasing your premium payments.
It will also save you money because the older you are, the more
expensive your funeral cover will become.
It
is best to be prepared right now, rather than later.
How do I get the best out of my funeral plan?
Look at more than one funeral plan before you make a decision.
Try to compare three or four policies before choosing the one that
is the best for you.
If
you have any difficulties at all such as your policy not being
deducted each month, contact your nearest customer care centre and
make the insurance provider aware of the problem.
Some
funeral policies offer extra benefits such as the ‘survival’
benefit, which pays out an amount to you if you live longer than the
survival period in the policy.
Others will pay for the deceased’s body to be transported from the
place of death to the place of burial.
Some
policies can also offer other benefits like unemployment and
maternity benefits, which means that if you lose your job or become
pregnant, you can stop paying your premiums for a limited amount of
time until you are back at work.
For more information visit
www.sanlamsky.co.za
or
www.sanlam.co.za
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