Covering your family's funeral insurance needs

Many South Africans carry the unspoken responsibility to support their families and extended families, and it’s a major cause of financial distress among the country’s middle class.

This burden is commonly called black tax and it covers everything from sending money home to relatives to paying/contributing to funeral costs for family members.

City Press reader Susan (49) not only has to contribute to her own funeral insurance, she is also financially committed to paying for a portion of nine other family members’ funeral plans.

To make sure she has enough money to pay for these costs, which range from her own funeral to paying a portion of her aunt’s funeral costs, she contributes to a burial society and her own policy, which only covers her and her immediate family.

“This is black tax, it really is. Most of us have this, especially for burials,’ Susan wrote

There are many funeral insurance offerings on the market in South Africa, with most now offering cover for more than the traditional nuclear family unit.

Capitec’s Brent Moore explains why the bank, in conjunction with Centriq Life, has launched a funeral offering where you can buy cover for yourself and 21 dependants.

“Some funeral cover products are offered as bundled offerings, covering a limited number of family members,” Moore says.

“For the client to cover the full family and related financial obligations, they might need to take out multiple policies.

"We wanted to create an offering that was flexible according to what our clients need in terms of the number of lives to be covered and the cover amounts, and thus offer great value for money.

"Capitec’s plan allows our client flexibility and the ability to manage their financial commitments on one policy contract,” he says.

This is how it works

On the Capitec plan, you can get cover for one spouse and up to four parents, eight children and eight extended family members.

Extended family is defined as the following:

• Your spouse – where you have more than one spouse, or your spouse falls outside the age requirements for a spouse, the additional spouses can be covered as extended family members.
• Parent - where you have more than four parents, the additional parents can be covered as extended wider family members.
• Child - where you have more than eight children or the child falls outside the age requirements, the additional children can be covered as extended family members.
• Great-grandparents who are your parents’ grandparents.
• Great-grandparents-in-law, who are the grandparents of your spouse’s parents.
• Grandparents, who are your parents’ parents.
• Grandparents-in-law are the parents of your spouse’s parents.
• Parents-in-law, who are the parents of your spouse.
• An aunt, who is the sister of your father or mother, or your uncle’s female spouse.
• An uncle, who is the brother of your father or mother, or your aunt’s male spouse.
• Brother, who is your parent’s male child.
• Sister, who is your parent’s female child.
• Brother-in-law is the male person married to the child of your parents.
• Sister-in-law is the female person married to the child of your parents.
• First cousin who is the child of your aunt or uncle as defined above.
• Son-in-law, the male person who is married to your child.
• Daughter-in-law, the female person who is married to your child.
• Nephew, who is the male child of your brother or sister.
• Niece, who is the female child of your brother or sister.
• First cousin’s child.
• Grandchild who is your child’s child.
• Great grandchild, who is your grandchild’s child

• This project is reported by City Press and paid for by Capitec