New Discovery Life and Discovery Invest range provides investment certainty and value

Highlights:
International economic mega-trends influences product design
Discovery Financial Integrator™ provides protection against uncontrollable economic risks for Discovery Life clients, offering the most cost-effective and comprehensive life cover
Discovery Invest Offshore launched - giving clients access to full offshore spectrum
Cost-effective SME retirement funding solution through the Discovery Group Retirement Plan

Discovery Life and Discovery Invest today announced new enhancements to achieve the most efficient, relevant and personalised levels of protection and benefits for its clients.

“Globally, we’ve seen three economic mega-trends that have created a demand for high-quality advice in the savings and protection markets. This fuelled the next generation of Discovery Life and Discovery Invest protection and investment products,” says Herschel Mayers, chief executive officer, Discovery Life and Invest.

Mayers goes on to say that the first mega-trend that influenced their product thinking is the increased global economic volatility. “The world has changed dramatically over the past two years as economic volatility increased. This highlighted the need for financial protection to maintain savings and retirement funding levels.”

The second trend is the advances in medical and healthcare technologies. “Over the next 40 years, we expect an increase in the trend for people to live longer after they retire. With the advances in medical and healthcare technologies people could live twice as long after retirement than today. This means that historic funding assumptions are no longer adequate and we have to rethink our retirement funding solutions.”

Mayers says that the third mega-trend that they have identified is the global phenomena of consumerism. “The trend has shifted power from corporates to individuals where individuals are more personally accountable for their financial security. This is evident in the massive shift, globally as well as locally, from defined benefit products to defined contribution products in the area of retirement products”

Mayers says that these three mega-trends have created demand for high-quality advice for consumers to ensure that they have the best protection in terms of life and investment products.

Discovery Life

To provide dynamic protection against uncontrollable economic risks Discovery Life is launching the Financial Integrator TM.

“The Financial Integrator will in essence offer extra cover at a reduced rate. In addition, it provides built-in protection for the effect that adverse economic factors would have on your retirement. This may arise due to asset values falling, the Rand depreciating or interest rates rising. The mechanism is to boost your cover by these shortfalls which either pays out at age 65 or on earlier death.” says Mayers.

Discovery Life members can acquire the Financial Integrator TM at a 10% discount on the price of normal cover, but they can also buy up additional protection based on their actual assets and debt. In addition, at least 10% of the Financial Integrator cover converts to cash at retirement.
The Financial IntegratorTM also enhances the Discovery Life Severe Illness Benefit to ensure that severe illnesses are not financially crippling for policyholders.

The Discovery Life Severe Illness Benefit provides cover for the whole body and for multiple claims when a person needs protection a second time. This benefit also provides cover should children or parents of the insured contract a severe illness. The LifeTime Impact technology increases payouts by up to double the insured amount based on the number of dependants a person has and the level of medical care required to treat the disease. In addition to this, the newly launched Severe Illness Extender Benefit now also achieves the highest payout ratio for all high-severity events, maintaining the Discovery Life Severe Illness Benefit’s position as the market leader.

Discovery Invest

Discovery Invest today launched the Discovery Invest Offshore product range which gives investors the opportunity to diversify portfolios offshore.

“Investors can use up to the maximum allowance of R2 million for offshore investing with this option. We have full offshore capability with over 60 funds from all the top fund managers around the world and I believe that this platform rounds off the Discovery Invest range,” says Mayers.

The Offshore Investment Integrator capitalises on the tax and health assets of Discovery Life to enable an immediate 10% boost in offshore assets for clients with a qualifying Discovery Life policy. This effectively means the client achieves an investment of R2.2 million offshore.
Another new Discovery Invest product, the Invest Booster™ uses integration with Vitality to maximise investment returns. The Invest Booster gives members the choice of receiving their HealthyFoodTM savings from Vitality in cash or channelling 75% of their HealthyFoodTM spend into long-term investments on the Discovery Invest Flexible Investment Plan platform.
“Over 150 000 Vitality members have activated the HealthyFoodTM benefit,” says Mayers.

“This new benefit gives investors the chance to boost their portfolios by using the HealthyFood™ benefit. For example, a family that spends an average R1 000 a month on HealthyFood™ products can add as much as 89% to their investment returns over a 10-year period.”

Discovery Life Group Risk
Finally, an exciting new offering aimed at small and medium enterprises (SME), is the Discovery Group Retirement Plan. The Group Retirement Plan is a fully integrated risk and retirement solution that offers individual retirement annuity packages on a group basis at a cost-effective rate for companies that has as little as six employees.

“We are excited about this new product that makes retirement funding accessible, efficient and certain for small and medium-sized businesses,” says Mayers. “This new offering is flexible, easy to administer and has the same tax benefits as any other group retirement annuity.” In addition, clients with group life through Discovery Life get up to 5% additional allocations to their contributions and protection of the assets relative to inflation at retirement.

In conclusion Mayers says that he believes the combined impact of these enhancements offers Discovery’s clients the highest levels of financial protection, certainty, value and customisation that meets individuals’ needs.