How to Avoid Funeral Pain – Get Funeral Cover

Some close friends of mine have experienced great anguish in the last few years. They did not have funeral cover.

Firstly their son, a 41 year-old breadwinner, died unexpectedly of a heart attack.

One year later, their 22-year-old niece was diagnosed with cancer. After months of waiting for a suitable donor, the young woman underwent a bone marrow transplant but her body rejected the new marrow.

One month later she was in a coma and a month after that she died.

But if you ask me what I remember most about those heart rending incidents it was the not the hospital visits or the funerals themselves.

It was the incredible embarrassment, guilt and worry that those left behind went through in order to bury their loved ones. On top of grieving for their loss, these good people had to phone around to find the money for the funeral.

The trouble with death is that you have to make burial plans immediately. You cannot store the body until you have found money for burial.  Interment has to take place as soon as possible after death.

In the case of my friends, they succeeded in borrowing money from relatives and friends to pay for the considerable costs of a decent funeral service.

FUNERAL COVER IS CHEAP

The lesson here is that everyone needs funeral insurance. Fortunately there are a number of ways to get

Funeral Cover

an inexpensive policy:

  • Piggyback it on the back of your existing short term or long term insurance. For example, Old Mutual has several inexpensive funeral insurance products that pay out fast
  • Your bank probably has affordable funeral cover on offer
  • Purchase a policy from companies that specialise in funeral policies, such as AVBOB and Assupol
  • If you have a Clicks account and loyalty card you qualify for a  FREE funeral policy from Regent based on the amount you spend at Clicks each month. This is a worthwhile option if you have a high monthly spend at Clicks
  • Pep Financial Services has inexpensive funeral cover plans on offer at your local Pep Store.
  • Go to http://www.hippo.co.za for comparative funeral cover quotes

 

As with all types of insurance the premiums, benefits (payouts on death) and even the beneficiary structure (does the policy cover yourself and your spouse or children and relatives too?) differ widely from insurance company to insurance company.

Be sure to shop around before buying funeral cover.

Next step: Get a funeral cover quote here

All info was correct at time of publishing