Country Head of Metropolitan Life Insurance Ghana Limited, Tawiah Ben-Ahmed has urged insurance companies to ensure that the funeral products they sell meet the cost associated with recent funerals.
According to him, the high cost of funerals nowadays far outweighs the claims received by their clients.
“If the cost that is occurred to finance funerals is beginning to rise, then it challenges funeral policy companies to make sure that the funeral policies that they provide, really meets the need of clients and then be able to finance the cost associated for the funeral, otherwise if the benefit do not meet the need or cannot finance the expenses, it makes it irrelevant,” he said at the launch of Metropolitan Life Insurance’s Family Eternity Plus (FEP) in Accra.
He said the Metropolitan Life Insurance’s Family Eternity Plus was there launched to address some of these problems.
“One of the benefits of the product is the fact that, for the first time in Ghana, we are having a funeral solution that says never again should our clients pay a premium for funeral insurance when they go on retirement. Once you retire under FEP, you are not expected to pay a premium, but the policy continues for the rest of your life and it pays for all the people that you have insured under the policy and you can cover as much as 18 family members under one policy,” he stated.
Also speaking at the launch, Managing Director for Cal Bank, Frank Adu Jnr applauded Metropolitan Life for introducing the new product.
“This product is truly Ghanaian and would be a turning point that enables us to come out of the ‘days of cold’ where people wondered how to access an adequate funeral finance plan for their loved ones,” he stated.
Per the new Metropolitan Life Insurance’s Family Eternity Plus (FEP) the policyholders get to benefit ‘One Week Funeral Celebration’ of 25% of the main funeral benefit selected. The client does not pay an extra premium for the benefit of up to 15,000 cedis.
Also, when no claim is made in any period of 3 years, 30 percent of the third year premium is refunded to the policy owner with the option to invest it in a savings account attached to the product.