Industry data shows that every year South Africans lose an estimated R6bn in value that was paid for funeral cover that lapsed.
This happens not because they have suddenly stopped caring about protecting their families, but because life happened and payments were missed. This causes both clients and insurers to lose out.
For South Africans who earn irregular, seasonal, or informal income, this type of failure is now avoidable.
Metropolitan’s No-Lapse Funeral Growth Plan is what happens when an insurer decides that income that moves deserves a product that moves with it.
We put some questions to Metropolitan’s head of product solutions Luke Nel about this exciting new product.
Let’s start with the obvious question. What is the No-Lapse Funeral Growth Plan, and why does it exist?
The product does exactly what it says in the name. It is funeral cover that does not lapse. It allows you to pay what you can when you can and grow your cover over time.
You sign up on WhatsApp and start with a payment of R200 to activate your cover and get your referral code. Cover becomes permanent once a customer has contributed R1,500 in total within the first 12 months.
Permanent means exactly that: after paying R1,500, a missed payment, a bad month, life happening, none of it can take the cover away.
Take two people we studied closely in building this: one who lands a R20,000-R25,000 lump sum every few months, and another earning R4,000-R6,000 in season and far less out of it. Both can start with R200 or more on WhatsApp and build towards permanence at their own pace.
Who is this built for?
It is for the 12-million South Africans whose incomes are irregular, seasonal, or informal — the domestic worker, the entrepreneur, the hustler, the delivery driver, the person doing piece jobs.
These are people who have always wanted to protect their families but have never had a product that understood how they actually earn.
But it is also for the employer, for instance, who wants to give their domestic worker permanent cover. For the parent who wants to protect their adult child who is still finding their feet in the workplace.
It is for the sibling sending money home every month — your family can help pay for your plan, and you can help pay for theirs.
What this actually looks like for someone, in practice?
Take someone earning R4,000 to R6,000 in season. They sign up on WhatsApp and pay R200 in a good month, which activates their cover.
Over the following months they add amounts of R200 or more when they can, until their total reaches R1,500 within the year.
From that point, their cover is permanent. If they get a bonus at the end of the season, they can put that in too; every payment grows their cover.
If a bad month comes and they can’t pay anything, the cover stays exactly where it is. With the referral programme, cover can grow even when you can’t pay for yourself. Their income can still move up and down, but their family’s protection doesn’t move with it.
Most funeral policies have a waiting period before you can claim. Does No-Lapse have one?
Yes, a six-month waiting period applies for death due to natural causes. However, in this unfortunate event, we will pay back the payments made so far for this insured life. No waiting period applies for death due to accidental causes.
How does someone actually know how close they are to R1,500?
Metropolitan sends you a WhatsApp after every payment or referral reward, showing your progress towards the R1,500 and beyond.
Clients can also request to download their policy documents at any time, showing their payment progress, cover amount, referral rewards and other policy details.
We built it that way deliberately because if someone can see their own progress, the protection is real. Referral rewards also count towards the R1,500 goal in the first 12 months.
If someone’s only ever known a normal funeral policy with a debit order, what’s the simplest way to explain how this is different?
Think of it like a lay-by account rather than an insurance policy. You pay what you can, when you can, until you reach the target in the first year, and once you have, it is yours.
Nobody takes it back because of a month you missed along the way. Now that you have secured permanent cover, you can grow it with further payments, stress-free.
A debit order assumes your income shows up the same way every month. No-Lapse assumes it will not and is built to keep working anyway.
What’s the one thing people usually get wrong about how this works?
That reaching R1,500 is the end of the process — it isn’t. It’s the point where the cover becomes permanent, but it’s also where the real value starts building.
Every contribution after that grows your protection. If you reach R1,500 you have done the hard part and your cover is permanent, but you must keep going to grow your cover further.
What happens if someone’s circumstances change, say they get a formal job, or their income stops for a while?
Nothing about the cover changes because of that. There’s no fixed monthly premium to renegotiate and no formal-employment clause that affects it.
If a customer’s income becomes more predictable, they can contribute more regularly. If it dries up for a stretch, once they’ve reached R1,500 the cover stays exactly where it is. The product was built around the idea that people’s circumstances move, not around requiring them to explain why.
Is there an age limit to join?
The age limits for signing up are 18 to 60 years old while top-ups can continue until the age of 65. Life partners up to age 70 can be added to the plan and children are covered up to age 21 if this option is selected.
You’ve also built in a referral benefit. How does that work?
When you sign up and make your first payment, you get your referral code. When an existing customer refers someone who goes on to make a payment into their own plan, the customer who referred them earns additional cover at no extra cost to themselves.
The referral programme gives 5% value back to the referrer. It’s a way of rewarding someone for believing in the product enough to share it. It helps the community to grow together and to support each other in difficult months.
Customers can sign up through Metropolitan’s WhatsApp channel by sending “NoLapse” to 0860 724 724, start with a first payment of R200 or more and top up via Pay@ online or using the extensive network of participating retailers nationwide.
Readers can find out more about the Metropolitan No-Lapse Funeral Growth Plan on Metropolitan’s website, at a Metropolitan branch, or by contacting Metropolitan on 0860 724 724 via WhatsApp or telephone.
This article was sponsored by Metropolitan.
