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Some misconceptions about funeral insurance that hurt the hip pocket

Funeral insurance is normally associated with the elderly. If you watch daytime television in particular you will have experienced the intensive advertising campaigns of a number of funeral insurers that all target retirees. Therefore if you are a younger person you could be excused for thinking this is not for me and simply switching off.

However the results of a research study commissioned by one of Australia’s oldest funeral insurers, Sureplan Friendly Society, show that people are taking out funeral insurance at a far younger age than expected. The study found that 11% of people aged 26-45, and 28% of those aged 46-55, had some form of funeral cover. These figures are even more surprising as it is very likely that these younger consumers have used the very same funeral insurers that target retirees. ;The power of advertising!

Sureplan is the only company that caters specifically for Under 56’s and as premiums are kept to an absolute minimum (and never increase)Sureplan does not engage in high-cost mass marketing campaigns. Sureplan’s Managing Director Mary-Ann Cook explains “Sureplan is a mutual and therefore our surpluses (profits) are retained for the benefit of our members – the money required to run a television campaign would need to be funded out of surpluses generated from leveraging higher premiums on our current members, and that is not what we are about”.

The difference in costs for a consumer between an insurance fund that targets the elderly and one that targets younger people is immense. Funeral insurance is a form of life insurance and thus it is a risk product. As the level of risk increases with age those funeral funds that target the elderly are taking on a much higher overall risk profile, and as a consequence, there is a requirement for them to collect higher premiums from policy holders (including the younger ones)to compensate for that increased risk. So most of these younger consumers referred to above, unless they found Sureplan online, ironically probably ended up taking out a policy with the insurers that target the elderly and will continue to pay ever-increasing premiums until age 90.

The message to learn from this is to get funeral insurance sorted earlier in life, because if you wait until you retire, you could end up paying 3 or 4 times the total cost. Sureplan Family Fund is the only fund that offers fixed premiums payable until age 60 (even though the cover is for a lifetime)and can be contacted either on 1800 817 105 or by visiting www.sureplanfuneralinsurance.com.au.