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Life industry to start new year with a clean(er) slate
From January 1, the ability of the life assurance industry to take you for an expensive ride will be significantly curtailed. One reform has been forced on the industry and the other has been undertaken voluntarily.
[Full Story...]
Liberty apologises for double debits
Liberty Life claims it will derive no financial advantage for double-debiting about 40 000 of its recurring premium policyholders this month and then taking at least five days to pay back the money.
[Full Story...]
Discovery passes on profits to clients
Discovery Life policyholders have been making fewer claims than expected on risk policies, and the resultant profits are to be passed back to them.
[Full Story...]
Life policy loans may leave you owing even more
Some people are under the false impression that they are borrowing their own money when they take out a loan against their investment life assurance policy. Bruce Cameron reports
[Full Story...]
Life assurance loans may catch you out
In light of the cautionary statement issued by Judge Brian Galgut, the Ombudsman for Long-term Insurance, about the dangers of borrowing against a life assurance investment policy, I asked the major life companies about loans and "hidden" loans.
[Full Story...]
What's the good of low premiums if you're not paid out?
Don't only consider the premium you will pay when you assure yourself against death, disability, dread disease or other individual risks. You may just find that the life assurance company does not pay out when you go knocking on its door for your money.
[Full Story...]
Assurers edgy about being compared on claims ratios
I have always thought that the reason one buys risk insurance - be it on your life or your property - is so that you receive a benefit when you need it.
[Full Story...]
Court upholds pensions decision in favour of Old Mutual
In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court of Appeal has confirmed that if you make a complaint to the Pension Funds Adjudicator, it does not have to be precisely phrased to meet the requirements of the law; and if you have a life assurance retirement annuity, you are entitled to complain to the adjudicator.
[Full Story...]
Dentist 'entitled to his disability benefit'
The Professional Provident Society Insurance Company (PPS), which provides financial products to professionals, wanted a 59-year-old dentist, who suffers from serious heart ailments, blindness in one eye, hypertension and gout, to carry on working.
[Full Story...]
Plan your finances as if you expect the unexpected
It happens in an unavoidable, terribly violent second.
[Full Story...]
Go to the ombud if you were given bad advice on RAs
I think it is a brave financial services provider or agent who continues to indiscriminately sell life assurance retirement annuity (RA) products that come with high cost structures and confiscatory penalties that apply if fund members are not able to maintain the required level of payments.
[Full Story...]
Bullyboy assurers have got too clever
Recently, the financial services industry body, the Association for Savings & Investment South Africa (Asisa), published an important advertisement.
[Full Story...]
Broker rapped for extending term of endowment policy
The financial advice ombud has ruled against a broker "likely to have been chasing commission" when he made the term of a policy longer than an investor requested, causing the client a loss when he cancelled it early.
[Full Story...]
Dice may not be loaded in your favour if you change risk products
In this, the last of a four-part series of columns on the dangers of switching financial services products, I am going to deal with life assurance risk products. Life assurance risk business is the second front of a major war that is raging in the financial services industry. The other front is the retirement annuity (RA) business, which I dealt with in the earlier columns.
[Full Story...]
Advice on life policy was improper - ruling
The financial advice ombud this week ordered a car dealership to pay R27 265 to the estate of a man to whom it sold a car and, without giving proper advice, a life policy.
[Full Story...]
Beware of costs minefield when you switch an RA
Last week, I wrote about the war, raging on two fronts, in the financial services industry in which you could quite easily become a victim.
[Full Story...]
Judge of character
Judge Brian Galgut heads the office to which you should take your case if you have an unresolved dispute with a life assurer.
[Full Story...]
10 things you should know about life assurance
Most of us who insure against death, disease or disability expect that, as long as we pay our premiums, we will be paid out promptly if disaster strikes. But, as the complaints that reach the ombudsman testify, life (assurance) is not that simple. We look at what you can do to avoid falling foul of the "terms and conditions".
[Full Story...]
Risk cover: separate fact from fiction
Personal risk insurance, by which I mean life and disability assurance, should be an important financial planning consideration.
[Full Story...]
Survey shows group life cover is costing more but impact of HIV/Aids is less
The cost of group life cover and benefits attached to retirement funds is continuing its upward creep, reducing the amount you save for retirement.
[Full Story...]
Adjudicator challenges high penalties assurers levy on RAs
The office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator is again in battle with the life assurance industry over the issue of the confiscatory penalties the life companies levy when you reduce or stop contributions on life assurance retirement annuities (RAs).
[Full Story...]
A lifestage portfolio gradually reduces your risk, but at what cost?
Lifestage investment portfolios are becoming increasingly popular for retirement savings. With a lifestage portfolio the equity component of your savings is gradually reduced as you approach retirement, even though equities have historically provided the superior investment returns. But the superior returns come with a far higher risk of extreme volatility. In other words, equities have a far greater propensity than other asset classes to surge in or lose value over short periods.
[Full Story...]
Timing is of the essence when buying your guaranteed annuity
There are the best of times and there are the worst of times to purchase a guaranteed annuity (pension) from a life assurance company. And just about now is the worst of times.
[Full Story...]
Dread disease cover is critical to your financial health
It is likely that you will contract - and survive - a major illness, such as heart disease or cancer, before you die. And without sufficient insurance, a severe illness could put an enormous strain on your finances.
[Full Story...]
You may have to claim twice for dread disease
The likelihood that you will contract more than one severe illness in your lifetime has implications for the type of dread disease assurance you take out.
[Full Story...]
Be wary of buying credit life insurance
You should not allow yourself to be pressured into buying credit life insurance when you sign a hire purchase agreement, Brian Martin, the Ombudsman for Short-term Insurance, says.
[Full Story...]
Insure your income before you take out other types of cover
The most important insurance to have in place is income protection, and after that you should take out lump sum disability cover and life cover, a top financial planner says.
[Full Story...]
Asisa sets criteria for illness insurance
From September, most life assurance companies will offer dread disease or critical illness policies that define four major illnesses in the same way so you will know the conditions under which the policies will pay out.
[Full Story...]
Why you should avoid universal life policies
Recently, I read a report in another newspaper that had a group of headlines. The first was "Do-it-yourself investing: life assurance", followed by "Don't get ripped off" and then "The new generation of life assurance policies include a savings component".
[Full Story...]
Prepare for pandemic by reviewing your life cover
Are you one of the many South Africans who do not carry sufficient risk life assurance against the chance of an early death? If you are, you had better do something about it today.
[Full Story...]
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