Life and disability insurance benefits
The adage that life insurance is never bought and only sold is sadly largely true. Very few people construct their life insurance portfolio from an informed position or base it on any quantitative evaluation of risk protection. GTC, through the actuarily developed TrueNorth software, is able to advise you of the correct amount of life insurance, based on the combination of your group risk benefits associated with your retirement fund together with any other cover that is necessary through your own endeavours. The tax that needs to be paid and therefore deducted from your life insurance too, needs to be considered and this will largely depend upon whether your group life benefit is approved or unapproved from a tax standpoint.
Perhaps even more complex than life insurance is the important risk assessment of protecting yourself from the financial consequences of disability and the lack of an income. GTC has specialist advisors within the MAPS team to advise and assist in this complex and complicated component of establishing your Financial Wellness plan.
Group insured benefits
Group life cover
Life insurance taken out for you as a member of a group scheme. Usually this has a free-cover limit, being a rand amount of insurance for which you do not have to undertake medical underwriting. This life insurance may be taxable – or not – depending on how the company has treated the premiums from a tax perspective.
Income protection
This cover pays out in the event of you being disabled and the disability is accepted in terms of the insurance policy. The cover is structured as a regular income replacement during both temporary and long-term disability. Tax changes a few years ago allowed for this benefit to be received tax-free. This complex benefit requires detailed explanation and understanding, to be an effective component of your financial wellness planning.
Please note that there are maximum levels of income protection permitted by insurers. As a result, cognisance must be taken of your group cover before you purchase any additional disability or income protection,
Capital disability cover
This cover pays out in the event of you being disabled and the disability is accepted in terms of the insurance policy.
The cover is available as a lumpsum payable upon total and permanent disability. Tax treatment will depend on whether the cover was structured as an approved or unapproved benefit. This complex benefit requires detailed explanation and understanding, to be an effective component of your financial wellness planning.
Funeral cover
This life insurance is designed specifically to cover some of the costs of your funeral. Funeral cover is structured to cover immediate family members as well. The cover may be structured to include extended family members.
Education cover
This insurance provides for the payment of fees for education for children of the insured member.
Spouse’s life cover
This cover provides a benefit to the member should the members’ spouse pass away.
Dread disease cover
This benefit is paid and in the event of the member contracting a serious illness as defined in the policy document.
Key person insurance
This life Insurance is taken out on the life of a nominated member of staff regarded by the company as being a key person, with the company paying the premium and receiving the death benefit in the event of the key person’s death.
Personal policies
Life cover
Any election of life insurance taken out in your personal capacity should be considered holistically with your group life insurance. As Life cover premiums are lower the younger you are, it would be beneficial to take out such cover at as young an age as possible. It is important to understand the difference between investing and life insurance.
Income protection / Disability cover
Recognising that there are maximum levels of income protection permitted, cognisance must be taken of your group cover before you purchase any additional disability or income protection.
Dread disease
As with other personal insurance, dread disease cover must be considered holistically with any group cover you participate in.
Income protection
Please note that there are maximum levels of income protection permitted by insurers. As a result, cognisance must be taken of your group cover before you purchase any additional disability or income protection.
Buy and sell insurance
This technically complex insurance ensures that shareholders or business partners have sufficient money to buy out other shareholders or partners in the event of their death (or disability if so insured). Professional advice is recommended when constructing a buy-and-sell agreement.
MAPS team
Altertude – the client engagement interface which combines all GTC’s various products and services for the benefit of each fund member – is facilitated by a team of professional, accredited financial advisors within GTC.
The personnel within the Member Advice Portal Support (MAPS) team are all experienced planners, each of whom has the unique additional discipline of being knowledgeable about retirement fund rules, group risk and tax structures, including the specific dispensation that applies to the in-fund options.
Majority of the team members have extensive retirement fund benefit consulting experience. All are uniquely positioned to provide the single point of unified financial advice that GTC so strongly advocates, merging a client’s retirement fund benefits with the personalised planning that will always be unique to each investor.
Within the MAPS team are specialists in all sectors that make up a holistic financial wellness programme. These disciplines include retirement funds, discretionary investing, risk insurance, short-term insurance, wills, estate planning, healthcare, and tax. True North – GTC’s technology based financial wellness toolkit – is the cornerstone of this complex interface.
The option of whether to access TrueNorth privately or to engage with the assistance of a MAPS consultant in the pursuit of financial wellness, remains available.
These MAPS team members remain available to guide you through Altertude and all its components, from on-boarding as a new GTC client, to realising the fruits of many years of careful and meticulous planning, into retirement – as well providing guidance with many of the additional eventualities which life throws at you along the way.
