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‘My will to live has been given a boost’: Avbob clients get R3.5bn centennial gift

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Avbob is sharing the love with its clients.
Avbob is sharing the love with its clients.

In a year dominated by centenary celebrations for former president Nelson Mandela and struggle activist Albertina Sisulu, another South African icon quietly celebrated its own birthday by giving back – 3.5 billion gifts.

Avbob Mutual Assurance Society on Wednesday marked its own 100-year celebrations with the goodwill ideals of the two struggle stalwarts and gave its clientele R3.5 billion through a new member benefit initiative.

“Turning 100 is a significant achievement that not many companies can attest to achieving and we are extremely proud to have reached this milestone,” the mutual society’s chief executive Frik Rademan said.

“The R3.5-billion benefit allocation provides Avbob members the opportunity to share in the long-term success of the group,” he added.

Avbob does not have shareholders who expect to receive dividends, hence the windfall for the funeral insurance provider’s clientele.

So the company was “able to share its profits with its members in the form of special bonuses and enhanced benefits” – without the member incurring additional expenses.

“This year, as part of the centenary celebrations, the company decided to do something extra special for our members through a new member benefit known as the Avbob Reward Account,” explained Rademan.

The account is a “unique benefit” that Avbob’s members will be entitled to claim in cash after the main insured person reaches the age of 65, subject to the policy having been in force for at least 10 years*.

Speaking to City Press at the Midrand Conference Centre, where the mutual society announced its plans on Monday, the chief executive said that Avbob worked for two years with its actuaries to calculate suitable dividends for all its clients.

“In the spirit of being fair and equitable to our clients we realised that we could not give every person the same amount, for instance, in a case where a policy holder has a policy of R500 a month and has been paying his policy for 20 years, you cannot give that person the same amount as a person who took out a policy last year worth R200.

“So after working with our actuaries, the minimum payout currently will be R1000 and the maximum is R50 000 that will be paid to policy holders,” said Rademan.

The money will be credited to their Avbob Reward accounts. Should the main insured person die before the age of 65, the full account balance will be paid out.

“Members therefore benefit from the Avbob Rewards on either survival or death – which is as it should be for a member of our family,” said Rademan.

One of Avbob’s clients, 61-year-old Marius Jonker, expressed joy at the news saying: “This announcement has come as a new lease on my life and has given me something to look forward to in the next four years.”

Jonker lost his job two years ago when a mining company – for which he had worked for almost 20 years – retrenched 500 of its employees.

“Since then I have struggled with depression and had all but lost any hope in life. My will to live has been given a boost now, since I have been a loyal Avbob client for almost nine years and will be receiving a sizeable payment in the next four years,” he said.

During the centenary celebrations Avob had more good news for their clientele. Bereaved family members often run short of words when paying respects to their loved ones and for this reason, the mutual society had compiled an anthology of poems to assist their clients.

“At times when we need words to voice our loss, they fail us. And so the idea was born of a collaboration with poets to create a resource for people in difficult times to visit and allow them to articulate their pain or find healing,” said Christo Westhuizen, head of advertisement at Avbob.

In keeping with the centenary celebrations, the anthology titled I Wish I’d Said is a compilation of 100 poems with written in all of South Africa’s eleven official languages.

* Terms and conditions apply.

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