Ongeza Life

Most individual life insurance products in SA are structured along the lines of monthly premiums for a defined cover amount. Once a client signs up for a policy, s/he signs a debit order that ensures that premiums are debited from his/her bank account monthly. If a debit order fails to collect (due to unavailability of funds in the account) for 2 or more consecutive months, the policy lapses and the policyholder loses the cover as well as all the cumulative premiums paid in the past. Debit orders typically fail for various reasons, e.g. the policyholder might have lost their job or source of income. Furthermore, a significant number of consumers are self-employed, and their income tends to be irregular. Monthly debit orders therefore become ineffective for these consumers as they are bound to fail to collect premiums at some point. Another challenge with the traditional insurance offerings is that most covers cease upon the policyholder reaching the retirement age. This includes the life covers offered under the employers’ group schemes where cover also cease upon the employee leaving the employer. In recognition of the above challenges, Ongeza Life developed OLP to provide flexibility to consumers. OLP provides cover for life. The consumer can pay any amount of premium (subject to a minimum premium of R500) at any time. For each tranche of premium paid, Ongeza Life calculates the amount of cover the said premium can afford the client for life, i.e. the client is covered for life for that tranche and the policy will never lapse. No medical underwriting, no debit orders, no lapses, and the policy can be ceded. The client has an option to top-up cover at any time. Every time the client tops up, a new tranche of cover is added to the total cover accumulated to date.