List of the Best Funeral Covers in South Africa
So What is a Funeral Cover?
A funeral cover is a type of insurance that pays for an individual’s funeral expenses and other associated costs. It is a type of life insurance, designed to provide a lump sum payment to cover the cost of a funeral and associated costs, such as transportation, burial, cremation, and memorial expenses. Funeral cover is largely designed to ensure that family members are not left with the financial burden of paying for an individual’s funeral. It is generally offered to individuals aged 18 and over and can be taken out on a single life or joint life basis.
List of the 6 Best Funeral Covers in South Africa
1. Discovery Funeral Cover
- Payment within 24 hours of receiving documents
- Double payout if you or your spouse die in an accident
- R5 000 cover for an unveiling
- Up to R4 500 payout for education
- Up to R3 600 payout for groceries
- Continued cover for your spouse and children
- Yearly premium PayBacks of up to 17.5% on the Classic Funeral Plan
- Automatic baby cover
2. Sanlam Funeral Cover
Funeral Cover: This benefit provides a payout if someone you have covered on your policy dies. This could be your spouse, your children, your parents, your wider/extended family.
Wealth Bonus: Buy Sanlam Indie Funeral Cover Online and we’ll match up to 100% of your premium in an investment – at no extra cost.
Premium Paid-up: Premium Paid-up pays premiums on clients’ behalf when the life assured reaches a certain age.
Cover Double after Three Years at No Extra Cost: Buy Sanlam Indie Funeral Cover Online and you can get cover that doubles after 3 years at no extra cost
Burial Repatriation Benefit: This benefit offers transport for the deceased from a funeral home to a place of burial of choice – anywhere in South Africa. It also pays for a family member to travel with the deceased and covers overnight accommodation if needed.
Flexible Premiums: Sanlam Indie Funeral Cover lets you proactively skip premiums without losing all your cover or reducing your Wealth Bonus.
Buy Online in Under 10 Minutes: Get quoted and covered in under 10 minutes online. No paperwork or waiting.
Unemployment and Pregnancy Payment Holiday: If you become pregnant or unemployed, you can apply to keep your policy active for up to 12 months without paying premiums. Your cover will be limited during this time.
Escalations: To keep up with the rising cost of living, you can choose to increase your premium every year to increase your cover.
Temporary Premium Support – Death Cover: Ensure that your family remains covered for up to six months* if you pass away before age 65.
No More Premiums
- Death
- Physical impairment
These benefits can be claimed on your death or physical impairment. If certain conditions are met, your premiums will continue to be paid and all your loved ones who are covered by your funeral plan will still be covered.
Tripple Accident Benefit: Receive a triple payout* if you or your loved ones pass away in an accident.
Memorial Benefit: If anyone covered by your policy dies this benefit will pay an amount of R10,000 to help you honour the memory of a loved one in a fitting way, for example a tombstone. This amount is paid with the rest of the funeral claim.
Grocery Benefit: If you or your spouse die this benefit will pay R1,000 for six months to help your beneficiaries with family expenses.
Cash Back Benefit: A cash back benefit will be paid out to the Policyholder for each three-year period from the policy issue date if the policy is active
3. Momentum Funeral Cover
There are a couple of main benefits of having funeral insurance cover with Momentum, like the following:
- For starters you can get membership to the Multiply rewards programme – see more below.
- 20% of your premiums are returned to you after 5 years if you do not claim
- Upon your death or the death of any of the members in your policy, Momentum will make a tax free payout to you in no more than 2 days after receiving all the necessary claim documents
- Because Momentum has a relationship with other funeral providers, you will qualify for a maximum R4000 at AVBOB funeral services which can go towards a coffin, flowers, and other arrangements
- Furthermore, R250 air time will be allocated for the arrangement of the burial
- Any members in your policy will not have to pay premiums on the policy for an entire year following your death. This will ensure that if something should happen to them, they too can duly claim from Momentum
- Also, for the next six months after your death, R1000 will be arranged for your beneficiaries which can go to the purchase of groceries
- R5000 will be allocated to you for a memorial benefit a year after your passing
The Multiply Rewards is a programme where you get access to discounts on many great South African services – such as 7.5% off Mango Flights, go see a movie at a NuMetro cinema for only R40 and get 4.5% back on your Dis-Chem purchases in the form of points. And this is just the Starter Package – if you upgrade you can enjoy NuMetro movie for only R27 and 10% Dis-Chem points back.
4. Old Mutual Funeral Cover
EasiPlus Funeral Plan
- Receive a lump sum (once-off payment) that can be used towards funeral costs
- Get immediate cover for accidental death, from the moment your application is accepted
- Miss up to 6 premiums during times of financial difficulty such as retrenchment, unemployment, maternity leave and study leave
- We aim to pay within 48 hours of receiving all documentation for a valid claim
Cover for your whole family: Insure yourself, family, parents, in-laws, grandparents and extended family members.
No medical tests: Get funeral cover without having to take a medical test.
Fast payout: We pay within 2 hours of receiving all required documentation for a valid claim, if you have a Money Account.
Standard Funeral Plan
- Receive a lump sum (once-off payment) which can be used towards funeral costs
- Get immediate cover for accidental death, from the moment your application is accepted
- Pays the Money back guarantee (the value of all premiums you had already paid) if an insured person dies from causes other than an accident in the waiting period
- You can miss up to 6 premiums during times of financial difficulty such as retrenchment, unemployment, maternity leave and study leave with the Premium holiday
Cover the whole family: Take out cover for yourself, your spouse/partner, your dependent children, parents and extended family.
More cover: Get immediate cover for accidental death from the moment your application is accepted.
Keep up with inflation: Equal cover and premium increase percentages are linked to inflation and will be applied annually.
Old Mutual Protect Family and Extended Family Funeral Cover
Choosing the right cover doesn’t have to be difficult. With the help of your adviser, you just need to follow these three quick and easy steps.
- Choose your cover. In this instance Old Mutual Protect Family Funeral Cover (cover for yourself, spouse/partner, nominated children, dependent children or grandchildren) or Old Mutual Protect Extended Family Funeral Cover (cover for siblings, parents, in-laws and other family members like aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and grandparents).
- Enrich your cover by paying extra for benefits such as Monthly Grocery Benefit and/or Monthly Education Benefit (depending on the type of cover you choose).
- Choose your add-ons such as Double Accidental Benefit or Cashback.
Old Mutual Protect lets you cover up to 22 family members and an unlimited number of dependent children.
Old Mutual Protect Family Funeral Cover amounts are:
For yourself and your spouse/partner: R5 000 to R100 000
For dependent children: R5 000 to R50 000
For nominated children: R5 000 to R50 000
Old Mutual Protect Extended Family Funeral Cover amounts for parents, siblings and other family members: R5 000 to R50 000
Note that legal limits apply for children younger than 14. If a child younger than 14 dies, we will not pay more than the legal limit.
True customisation: You choose and only pay for the cover you need.
Pay less: You could save on premiums and get access to cover of over R50 000 by simply answering a few health and lifestyle questions.
Quick payout: Submit a valid claim with all the requirements and you could receive your payout within 2 hours if you have an Old Mutual Money Account, and within 24 hours if you don’t.
5. Outsurance Funeral Cover
Real flexibility: Add your spouse, up to 8 children and even your parents or parents-in-law. You can also add or remove family members whenever you want.
Control your cover: Choose your cover amount, from R30 000 to R100 000. You can change this cover amount whenever you want.
True value: Instead of a single price for a range of people, we quote you as an individual and offer the most suitable premium.
Bonus month: Get a bonus month or premium holiday for every 12 months of premiums we receive. You can ‘bank’ up to three of these bonus months, for when you really need them.
Pause and play: If times get tough, pause your cover and premium for up to three months. When you begin paying again, your cover will resume with no waiting periods.
Add family members to your funeral cover
When you’re in the process of shopping around for funeral cover quotes, it’s also worth noting how many family members can be covered on one plan. The following family members can be added to an OUTsurance funeral plan:
- yourself (also referred to as the main life insured)
- your spouse (married by law or customary law to the main life insured)
- your biological children, legally adopted children and stepchildren (up to a maximum of eight children)
- your biological parents or parents by adoption, and your parents-in-law.
Keep in mind that if you choose to take out funeral cover with OUTsurance that you, as the main life insured, will need to have a valid South African ID number. You also need to make sure that those family members listed on your policy are South African citizens. They must also live in South Africa for at least 6 months in any 12-month period.
Add additional cover benefits Of OUTSurance Funeral Cover
When getting funeral cover quotes, remember to ask about the following benefits available to you – and which of these will be charged at an additional premium. At OUTsurance, you can add the following benefits to your funeral cover at quote stage, or you can also add this at a later stage. These will be charged at an additional premium:
- A stillborn benefit
We will pay out R5000 in the event of a stillborn child after 26 weeks of pregnancy. The mother of the stillborn child has to be either the child of the main life insured or the spouse covered on your funeral plan.
- Premium waiver benefit
If the main life insured passes away and a valid claim is paid, cover for all persons on the OUTsurance funeral policy will continue for three months before the policy is cancelled and no premiums will need to be paid during this period.
- Repatriation benefit
If you add a repatriation benefit to your OUTsurance funeral insurance quote, the transportation of the deceased to a funeral home chosen by the family (closest to the place of burial), will also be covered. This benefit will come into play if the place of death is in South Africa and where the chosen funeral home is more than 100km from the place of death. This includes destinations in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mozambique.
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Transport benefit
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After tears benefit
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Tombstone benefit
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Catering benefit
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Marquee benefit
6. Liberty Funeral Cover
At Liberty, we want to help you during your time of need. We know the importance of family and doing everything you can to help and protect them. Having a bigger family does not mean you are restricted from giving them the support they need. With Liberty’s Funeral Plus Plan you can cover up to 32 family members. You may even have people who are important in your life, who are not family, who you would like to cover for funeral expenses such as your household helper or gardener.
The Liberty Funeral Plus Plan gives you the freedom to choose benefits and cover from R5000 to R100 000, depending on your needs and budget. Some of the optional benefits on the Funeral Plus Plan include:
- Cash Back
- Airtime
- Tombstone
- Inkomo Cash
- Groceries
At Liberty, we want to help you achieve financial freedom across all aspects of your life. This includes your funeral cover options. We believe that you should have the freedom to choose the type of cover and benefits that suit your needs, as your life changes. Your funeral plan should offer you the flexibility to choose benefits that best suit your budget and your needs.
A wide range of optional benefits
We know that you may need certain benefits for added cover, for specific funeral expenses or to help maintain your cover during difficult financial times. The Liberty Funeral Plus Plan offers you a wide range of optional benefits, each at an additional cost.
You are also able to extend some of these benefits to other loved ones covered under your plan, such as spouses. Each benefit can be added or removed at any time, depending on your needs.
- Tombstone
- Double Accident
- Inkomo Cash
- Cash Back
- Paid Up (at 65 you don’t need to pay any premiums and the policy remains in force)
- Value Added (benefits to help with airtime, groceries, transport and other expenses)
Cover for your loved ones
We know the importance of family and doing everything you can to help and protect them. Having a larger family should not mean that you are restricted in offering your loved ones all the support they need, including funeral cover.
Our Funeral Plus Plan lets you cover all your loved ones, at an affordable rate. You may even have people who are important to you but are not family, who you would like to cover for funeral expenses. That’s why you can also include your domestic worker or gardener on your funeral plan.
What is the waiting period?
- 6 months waiting period for all covered lives for death due to natural causes.
- 12 months waiting period for death as a result of suicide.
- No waiting periods for death due to unnatural causes or when switching from another insurer subject to Liberty’s switching requirements.
Premiums refunded if death is due to natural causes during waiting period.
If I am switching my policy to Liberty, do I have to restart my waiting period?
- If you have completed the waiting period before, the waiting period does not apply.
- If you still must complete any waiting period, you complete whatever waiting period remains.
- There is no added waiting period.
- If you’re switching from cover your employer provided, to your own personal cover, the same rules above apply (you only complete whatever waiting period remains).
- A new waiting period is only applied to new cover in excess of the original cover.
The above only applies if you have switched cover within 31 days of cancelling the previous cover.
How long does it take to pay a claim?
We try pay out as quickly as possible because we understand how difficult such a traumatic time can be. We commit to pay-out out within 48 hours of receiving all the required documentation.
|
Cover for you and your family |
|---|
| Who can be covered? | Minimum | Maximum | Age | Number of lives covered |
| Principal Life Assured |
R 5000 | R 100 000 | 18-65 | 1 |
| Spouse | R 5000 | R 100 000 | 18-65 | Up to 3 |
| Children | R 5 000 | R 50 000 | 0-24 | Up to 10 |
| Parents | R 5000 | R 80 000 | 0-84 | Up to 8 |
| Extended Family | R 5000 | R 50 000 | 18-84 | Up to 10 |
What’s the Difference Between Life Insurance and a Funeral Plan?
Life insurance is designed to pay out a large amount of money to take care of your loved ones, long after you have passed away. This pay out can go towards a home, on-going living expenses and even education. Life insurance can also include cover that pays out if you become disabled and or critically ill.
A funeral plan typically pays out a somewhat smaller amount of money than life insurance. That is because funeral cover is designed to take care of the costs associated with a funeral alone.
