Old Mutual provides customers with extra funeral cover worth R450 million

Prabashini Moodley, Finance Manager for Old Mutual.

Old Mutual is pleased to announce that over half a million customers who have held Old Mutual funeral policies for three to four years will receive a share of R450 million in extra funeral cover.

Decreasing mortality rates and fewer death claims than expected have enabled Old Mutual to allocate additional funeral cover to half a  million customers – at no extra cost to them.

“Every time our customers celebrate a five-year anniversary with us we routinely review their cover value against regulatory or economic changes or shifts in claims experiences,” explains Prabashini Moodley, Finance Manager for Old Mutual.

“Our extra reserves (the money we keep aside to pay claims) from mortality improvements have now enabled us to also boost the cover of those customers who only reach their anniversaries in 2018 and 2019.”

“Working with the HIV pandemic in the insurance industry has involved careful risk management, ongoing research, modelling and lots of adaptation,” says Moodley.

Stats SA explains that South Africa is one of the few developing countries experiencing an increase in the proportion of the population aged 60 and over. Improved access and uptake of Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment over time has enabled HIV positive people to live longer and lead healthier lives, resulting in the gradual decline in AIDS related deaths in the past decade.

“As a custodian of South Africans’ savings, Old Mutual remains committed to helping our customers achieve their financial goals. For us, it is great to find opportunities to provide additional value and peace of mind. In total, the downward mortality trend has enabled us to award funeral policyholders with more than R2 billion in additional funeral cover between 2013 and 2017. This allocation is an acceleration of the 2015 funeral insurance windfall,” Moodley concludes.