Life Insurers
Death and taxes are a safe bet, which is why life insurers are often referred to as assurance companies. The difference between insurance and assurance is that insurance protects the insured against a likely event, while assurance protects the insured against an inevitable event. Life insurers exist to provide for your family financially after you are no longer able to do so, whether as a result of disability or death.
Like most institutions, life insurers have had to keep up with the internet, which now makes for two types of life insurers: direct life insurers and broker life insurers.
Broker life insurers
Companies such as Allan Gray and Sanlam operate strictly through a life insurance broker. The benefits of working through a broker are that they understand life insurance and can help you determine how much life cover you need. The problem with them, however, is that they often promote one life insurer above another because of their relationship with them. Brokerages also get paid by insurers to represent them, which means the cost of insurance from them will have factored in this additional cost.
Direct life insurers
Cottoning on to the success of short-term insurance, life insurers now provide long-term insurance direct to the public, and often online. Companies like 1LifeDirect and Outsurance offer life and disability without the use of a broker. The advantage of this is a cheaper premium, but it does require that you research life cover and understand your needs before you phone a life insurer.
What’s more, direct life insurers call you and provide a life insurance quote over the phone. To get multiple life insurance quotes at once, fill in our online form here and we will get life insurers to contact you.