BOFUS, Liberty Life in talks
Staff Writer | Monday October 24, 2016 15:56
Speaking at the BOFUS AGM in Palapye on Saturday, BOFUS chairman, Moeti Mooketsi, lamented that without a strategic partner like Liberty Life, expenses associated with claims kept on increasing as the BOFUS increased benefits.
BOFUS, which currently has 10,871 members and rakes in over P11 million a month from subscriptions, has also established an insurance brokerage company, as part of their three-year contract with Liberty Life.
Mooketsi said brokerage, when finally up and running will be in a position to give members diverse mix of insurance based services, while BOFUS and the BOSETU at large are also destined to benefit immensely by associating with insurance specialists.
Amongst others having an under writer on board wll enable BOFUS to benefit from the strategic partners’ insurance expertise who will monitor the risk and claims trends of the benefits and help to manage future uncertainty.
The BOFUS scheme has experienced high number of claims from third parties in recent times, with parents and parents in-laws category contributing to 66% of the claims, and extended family members category contributing to 20% of the claims. Another uncertainty has come from the children’s category which accounted for eight percent of all the claims, while principal members category accounted for only four percent.
The Palapye AGM also heard that during the financial year that ended in March 2015, claims had grown by 13% and that they have now gone up by 30%.
Claims have been on the ascendancy from slightly below a million pula in 2012 to slightly over P2 million the following year, to P3 million in 2014, and P3.5 million in 2015, reaching about P4.5 million by March this year.
The chairman also said the partnership will help them avoid paying fraudulent claims, thus keeping costs down.
He also hailed the new partnership saying it provides security to clients as the underwriter has capital which is regulated by law, for purposes of covering the risks. He also looked forward to high and improved benefit cover for BOFUS members at reasonable premiums.
Perhaps the highlights of the BOFUS AGM was the announcement by the chairman that benefits will be increased again, and that this time around extended families and parents and parents-in-laws categories have been considered, and they will all move to P10,000, while the principal member, in addition to the traditional P30,000 cover, will be given another P10,000 to cover grocery and tombstone.
The BOFUS chairman also added that the extended family cover will be extended to cover up to six, instead of the traditional four members, all these just for the P150 subscriptions, adding that the new benefits will be affected from December 1, this year.
The BOFUs scheme currently looks healthy with asset base of P32 million, up from P27 million the previous year, an upward swing of 18.5%.