INSURANCE and Pensions Commission (Ipec) commissioner Grace Muradzikwa has urged insurers to be more accountable and transparent in their conduct.
Muradzikwa made the remarks in Bulawayo last week during a three-day Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers conference, which ran under the theme Towards a more resilient post-pandemic future in the funeral industry value chain.
“There should be accountability and transparency in the insurance fund or policyholders’ account. Transfers should be transparent and documented,’’ Muradzikwa said.
She indicated that there were concerns that policy documents were not written legibly and had insufficient detail especially on cash in lieu and insurable interest issues which have become potential sources of fraud.
“Exclusion clauses are not adequately disclosed and explained to policyholders. There are too frequent and high reviews of the premiums, with shareholders’ funds not absorbing some of the unforeseen losses,” she said.
Muradzikwa further pointed out that there is a real threat to sustainability of the current funeral assurance model and called on the Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers leadership to address concerns over duplicate or multiple policies.
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“Multiple policies are common where extended families take policies for each other and only one policy paying out meaningfully, the rest paying nominal and token benefits,’’ she said.
Ipec is currently considering offshore investments for insurers in order to promote compliance.
South Africa-based Icebolethu group marketing manager Nkosentsha Hlobo said they attended the conference in order to understand how funeral parlours were being run in other countries.
“We came to form relations especially for body repatriations, South Africa does a lot of repatriations to other Sadc countries,” Hlobo said.