Durban. Wednesday, 17 July 2024 – Bidvest Life has announced multiple enhancements to its flagship product, FMI Individual, aimed at helping financial advisers generate more business with real solutions that meet their clients’ expectations.

Founded as FMI in 1995, Bidvest Life has a unique history of developing innovative life insurance products that address real needs. Initially, the insurer focused on providing income protection to South Africans who did not qualify for income protection benefits because of their profession. Over the years, Bidvest Life expanded its offering, adding disability cover in 2011, life cover in 2013, and critical illness cover in 2016 to address gaps in the market.

Presenting the FMI Individual product updates to its supporting Johannesburg-based advisers today, Chief Product Actuary Nic Smit said that in a competitive market, financial advisers need products that continuously evolve to solve real problems and deliver tangible value, based on actual insights. “Like the versatile and multifunctional Swiss Army Knife, FMI Individual is the go-to for a full suite of life products that allow financial advisers to gain or maintain their competitive edge.”

Smit focused first on the benefit that has built Bidvest Life's reputation: income protection. According to Bidvest Life’s 2022 Claims Report, 54% of income protection claims lasted less than 30 days¹, showing that a 30-day waiting period covers less than half of the claim events covered by a 7-day waiting period.

Now, Bidvest Life has removed the ’professionals‘ list that previously determined who qualified for a 7-day waiting period, widening the net to include those with a three-year degree, B-Tech, or advanced diploma. Effectively, anyone with an education equivalent to an NQF Level 7 now qualifies for Bidvest Life’s market-leading 7-day waiting period*.

In 2022, Bidvest Life saw over 200x more income protection claims lodged than disability lump sum claims². This shows that most injuries and illnesses that impact one’s ability to work temporarily won’t necessarily result in a claim on lump sum disability cover, which requires permanence. Commutation Plus – a new version of the Commutation Option – enables clients to commute up to 100% of their monthly payout into a once-off lump sum on permanent disability. The Standard Commutation Option, which limits commutation to one-third of the monthly payout, remains. Now, advisers and clients have flexibility to choose between the option that best suits their needs.

“We believe that the enhancements to our Income Protection benefits will set the standard against which all other income protection in the market will be measured,” said Smit.

Introducing the evolved suite of life cover products, Smit emphasised a need for differentiation. “We often hear that life cover is sold only on price. Our life cover solution enables our advisers to sell a far more holistic and efficient plan to clients, beyond a single traditional lump sum benefit and beyond just price.”

Believing that underwritten life cover can overcome the limitations of traditional funeral products, Bidvest Life currently does not offer funeral cover. However, cover for the immediate family is one area where life cover falls short in addressing needs on death. Bidvest Life clients can now add Spouse Life and Child Life benefits to their Life Lump Sum benefit, giving them peace of mind that their family is covered. An added benefit is that only the policyholder must be underwritten, making this addition to clients’ policies simple and speedy.

An important consideration in enhancing the FMI Individual product was solving problems to put people first. Some life insurance applicants don’t qualify for life cover due to pre-existing health conditions. The new Deferred Life benefit provides an alternative for certain clients who would otherwise be declined.

Another innovation driven by their client experience is Bidvest Life’s new Life Priority benefit, which is intended to provide for immediate needs following death, like groceries, rent and school fees. This benefit has reduced the checks that need to be completed for non-disclosure for deaths that occur after the first two years of cover. This means that where the payment of the main life insurance benefit is delayed because non-disclosure checks need to be completed, the Life Priority benefit will often be able to pay out earlier, which eases the pressure on the policyholder’s family.

Smit moved on to explain how advisers continue to identify retrenchment cover as a crucial need for their clients, as it is often required by banks when clients apply for bond cover. Bidvest Life has (re)introduced the Retrenchment Protector specifically for bond cover, available to clients that take both Life Lump Sum and Disability Lump Sum. This not only enables clients to continue servicing their bond commitment if they are laid off; Bidvest Life’s fully underwritten bond cover product offers more competitive premiums than those typically quoted by banks.

“These enhancements to Bidvest Life’s FMI Individual product reinforce our commitment to delivering exceptional value for our network of advisers and their clients. Our flagship product now includes all the features to make it the first – and only – choice for income protection, disability, critical illness, and death benefits,” said Smit.

¹ Bidvest Life 2022 Claims Report

² Bidvest Life 2022 Claims Report

*Disclaimer: T’s and C’s apply.

ENDS.

About Bidvest Life 

Bidvest Life is a life insurer that has protected the salaries of all working South Africans for over 29 years from the risk of injury, illness or death through a combination of income protection, disability, critical illness and life cover options. For more information visit bidvestlife.co.za or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.