Author: mangs

Is your funeral cover up to date?

Use this cheat sheet to determine if you need to make any changes to your funeral policy details including members, beneficiaries and cover amount.

The good news is you can now switch your funeral policy to another insurer without the 6 months waiting period. Get in touch with us and we will help you investigate the options.

Times when you must review your funeral policy

Your family grows.
If your family grows, you can add your new family member to your funeral policy to make sure you are all covered.
You get married or divorced.
When a marriage or divorce occurs, check that your funeral insurance is still appropriate and covers those you provide for.
Your children reach a certain age.
As your children get older, check if their cover amounts can be increased, if your insurer does not do this automatically.
Your children reach adulthood.
Children can usually be covered on funeral policies up to the age of 21, or 25 if they are full-time students. Once they reach this age they will no longer be covered on your policy.
Funeral prices increase.
Funeral costs, like so many costs, tend to increase over time. Review your sum assured once a year to make sure it will cover the costs of a respectable funeral.
Safe family house model and garden on son daughter children kid guardian mother father hands, blur natural greenery tree planting environment background: Home loan property ownership assurance concept
You need to save money and reduce your cover.
If times are tough and you need to reduce expenses, you may choose to reduce your cover amount as this will affect your premiums or shop around for alternative quotes.
Testimonial “ Melisizwe , the financial advisor from Maple helped me switch my funeral policy and save me a lot of money. I was paying R900 for 5 family members covered for R50 000 each. Now I am paying R317 for 6 family members with the same cover of R50 000 each.” Emmanuel.
Update your policy – and schedule the next update!
If you need to update your policy, simply contact your financial adviser. They will assist you with any changes and answer any questions you might have.

For assistance contact your Maple financial advisor 

Contact Melisizwe on (083) 209-0769 / send him a whatsapp message
Contact Lonea on (073) 211-3364 / send her a whatsapp message.
Find out More
10 November 2021 / by mangs

Managing Risk in Practice Q&A for Dieticians and Nutritionists

The purpose of this Q&A is to serve as a resource for you to identify sources of risks in your practice and understand how to navigate these situations. While it is not possible to eliminate all risks in dietetics, dietitians have a duty to protect clients from risk of harm as much as possible.
In dietetics, a risk can be defined as a situation or action that involves exposure to danger, physical or mental harm (including financial), or loss to a client/patient and/or to the dietitian. Risks, even when unintended, have the potential to adversely influence a dietitian’s ability to provide safe and ethical patient-centred care. Risk can occur at any time when dietitians practice dietetics, as defined in legislation as the assessment of nutritional needs, design, implementation and evaluation of nutritional care plans and therapeutic diets, the science of food and human nutrition, and dissemination of information about food and human nutrition to attain, maintain and promote the health of individuals, groups and the community. Therefore, whenever health advice and nutrition care are being offered, there is room for miscommunication, misunderstandings, and mistakes.
Risk management is the process of analysing risks mitigating or prevent harm from occurring. Risk management considers how likely a risk is to occur, what the potential for harm is, its gravity, and identifies strategies and processes informed by data to respond to situations that may place clients at risk of harm. Managing risk applies to dietitians in all practice settings, stages, and years of experience.
There are multiple steps you can implement to identify, monitor, and manage risks in your practice.
  1. Analyse your practice context and identify risks
Questions to ask yourself:
  • What is the source of this risk? Is it related to self, work, or environmental?
  • Is this within my professional scope? My personal scope?
  • How urgent is this? How likely is an adverse event to happen?
  • What is the type of harm? The likelihood and frequency of harm? The severity and duration of harm?
  • Is the harm perceived or rational? Define the worst- and best-case scenarios and identify the likely outcome.
  1. Explore solutions which best protect against risk
Questions to ask yourself:
  • What is the impact of the risk?
  • What is my competence (skills, abilities, judgement) to address the risk?
  • Who could I ask for help (a person or a place with resources relevant to the risk)?
  • Could my action or inaction cause harm to my client or the public?
  • Do I have inherent bias that affect this situation? (This may translate to learning needs)
  • Are some protective strategies already in place to prevent/mitigate the risk?
  • Would the solution protect the client’s autonomy, respect, confidentiality, dignity, and access to information?
  • Would the solution increase safety, effectiveness of treatment?
  1. Choose and apply most relevant solutions to safe, ethical, client-centred care.
Questions to ask yourself:
  • Is this approach evidence-based, safe, ethical and client-centred?
  • If I have chosen that no action is my current response, can I demonstrate that I did not ignore or avoid the risk?
  • Have I effectively communicated and documented?
  1. Evaluation decision-making process and outcomes
Questions to ask yourself:
  • Was the risk minimized or removed?
  • What was the impact on the services/care delivered? Was safe, ethical, and client-centred care maintained?
  • Is there a gap in my knowledge and skills that need to be addressed to mitigate future risk?
  • If anything went wrong, what can I learn from this experience?
While not an exhaustive list, the following provides a sample of practice settings, contexts, and activities, to consider as sources of risk.

Your work place set up:

  • Eating disorders
  • Refeeding syndrome associated with different conditions
  • Malnutrition
  • Complex care: renal, dysphagia, diabetes (i.e., insulin adjustment, managing hypoglycemia)
  • Long-term care, ICU, transplant, surgery, medicine, psychiatric care
  • Food production and distribution for therapeutic diets such as allergies, dysphagia or low potassium

Self (Dietitian-specific or intra-individual):

  • Lack of competence, experience or training in a practice setting, lack of recognition of limits in competence in certain practice areas
  • Lack of confidence and/or motivation
  • Poor emotional or mental wellbeing (e.g., burnout, exhaustion, compassion fatigue)
  • Personal stressors that affect work performance (e.g., grief, trauma, financial hardship)
  • Not understanding scope of practice or professional boundaries
  • Refusal to seek assistance when needed or make appropriate referrals

Work environment:

  • Poor communication among colleagues
  • Outdated dietetic practice guidelines and protocols that do not reflect patient centred care and current evidence-based practice
  • Lack of workplace support for personal well-being (i.e., not prioritizing personnel physical and mental health) and time to integrate professional development into practice
  • Lack of mentorship and limited resources for learning opportunities
  • Increased patient and/or acuity caseload, short-staffed workplace, lack of workload coverage when needed

If you practice competently and safely, yet a complaint is filed against you, documentation is your best objective and reliable defence, rather than relying on verbal recall. If a risk is identified and managed, report which strategies you used to help inform others and prevent future risk of harm (and protect yourself in the case of an investigation or a complaint from a client). Record keeping helps you understand the situation fully, strengthens communication with other healthcare professionals, minimizes errors, and supports safe and client-centred care.

The ability to communicate effectively is essential to all dietitians, regardless of work setting. Involving team members in decision making whenever possible helps glean additional insight that may have not been previously considered. Honest and clear communication strengthens relationships and lessens chances for misunderstanding. Always obtain informed consent and confirm that your client understands your recommendations.

It sounds as though a lot of risk in dietetic practice can be mitigated by successfully identifying gaps in knowledge and working towards goals to fill those gaps. Dietitians go through this type of reflection on a regular basis.

With all the risk management aspect of the business in place your clients expect care, expertise, and a truly personal service which they may held you liable should they feel they did not receive the expected service or outcome. As a top priority, you need protection – just in case something goes wrong.

To ensure protection of your business and for you to have peace of mind you require Professional Indemnity for Medical Professionals. With our Medical Malpractice cover you will also be automatically covered for Professional Indemnity and Public Liability under one policy

Medical Malpractice
Professional Indemnity
Estate & Tax Planning
4 November 2021 / by mangs

Are you vetting your medical professionals correctly?

Healthcare placement agencies and Locum agencies in South Africa face claims arising from the provision of professional services by locums and medical professional they place at the various health care facilities.

As a placement agency you need medical malpractice and professional indemnity to cover you from placement risks. Your health care professionals / nurses also need insurance in their own capacity as they are not employees of the hospital or the agency.

Your responsibility as a placement agency is to place the best medical professionals at the hospitals, that require their services. However, as an agency you are not in a position to provide direct supervision of the individuals you are placing. That’s why you need to vet them correctly.

You can avoid incorrect placement risk by answering the following questions:

Does the applicant have a current and valid registration with the Health Professional Council or South African Nursing Council?

Is the position aligned with their qualification and experience?

Have you checked their references?

Have you done a criminal record check?

Do you get regular feedback on their performance?

Do your medical professionals keep up with the latest trends?

Do your medical professionals fulfil the Continuous Development requirements?

Do you ensure that the nurses/ medical professionals have their own individual medical malpractice and professional indemnity insurance?

Mistakes happen, even to the best clinicians. However, many of them do not have their own individual malpractice liability insurance which can be crippling to their financial wellbeing and careers and can have the same detrimental effect on the placement agency who placed them.

Learn More
28 October 2021 / by mangs

Kidnap Trends: Important for High Net Worth & High Profile Individuals

The coronavirus pandemic has had potentially destructive consequences for countries in the developing world, especially those struggling with insecurity. The question of whether COVID-19 has a dramatic effect on crime and conflict in 2021 may be too soon to tell, but the long-term implications of unemployment growth combined with a reduction in real incomes is expected to engender social, economic and political upheaval, which will benefit organized crime and enable armed groups seeking to exploit sources of tension, increase recruitment and win popular support.

19 July 2021 / by mangs

A New Car For An Old Car: Do you need this cover?

One of the most foundational principles insurance is built upon is the principle of indemnity. Indemnity means that the Insurer will endeavour as far as possible to put you back in the position you were before an insured incident occurred.

This can happen in various forms which is either to repair damage, replace damaged or stolen items or settle the value of the items in cash. It is usually at the Insurers as to which method of indemnity they will grant, but this decision is based on various factors which include:

  • the cost and availability of expertise to repair an item
  • the cost and availability of the same or similar item to replace the item
  • the progression of technology and product advancement to provide a similar product or item to the one lost or damaged.

This becomes especially tricky with one of the foundational legal principles of insurance, which is betterment, as this principle means that one should not gain through an insurance contract but be put back in a neutral position, as it were, prior to the insured incident. Due to product development and the pace of technological enhancements this principle often becomes difficult to apply as so many products have been enhanced in functionality and operation within a 5-year period that replacing an item almost always becomes considered as betterment.

When I then consider the insurance value of my house, I need to consider what it would cost to rebuild my house, and not just what I might owe the bank on my home loan or mortgage agreement. In addition, I need to also remember that any real estate agent would be concentrated on the value my house will sell for on the property market, which is also not completely indicative of the rebuilding costs.

Lizelle Truter, Specialist Claims Manager at MUA, recommends that the reinstatement cost needs to take into account the cost per square meter to rebuild the dwelling as it currently stands, with the same fixtures and finishing. It should also include an additional 10% of cost (approximation) to allow for things such as demolition, rubble removal, architects and engineer’s fees.

A useful guide to consult is the Africa Property & Construction Cost Guide which is published annually by AECOM (Pty) Ltd.

With vehicles however, value is relative and has been debated for so long, due to the immediate depreciation factor and drop from retail to market value. It has also caused much debate about the correct insurance value a vehicle should be insured for, especially when most new vehicles are purchased on finance arrangements at the retail value.

Thankfully, the discretion lies with the Insurer, especially when that Insurer is a customer centric focussed business and considers the impact to their client with as much care as the impact to their business. For this reason, MUA have provided an enhanced optional benefit in the Executive Policy.

This means that if I purchase a vehicle new from a dealership, I arrange my insurance with MUA with the New for Old option and within the first 3 years of owning the vehicle an insured event happens which causes either:

  • the vehicle to be stolen or hijacked and not recovered; or
  • damaged and it is deemed uneconomical to repair
    •  

MUA will either replace my vehicle with a new one of the same or similar make and model or pay the cost of purchasing a new vehicle of the same make and model. The value of the new vehicle, however, is limited to the same value of the original vehicle I purchased or at reasonable retail value.

After the first year of owning a vehicle I am unlikely to be offered the same value I paid for my vehicle by a dealership which is why the replacement vehicle then would be a reasonable retail value. This means that the value is a published value and determined using the Auto Dealer’s Guide as published in the month the damage or loss occurred.

Used with permission from MUA Insurance Acceptances (Pty) Ltd

19 July 2021 / by mangs

Home Valuations: How much is that worth?

When insuring valuable items, or a collection of items, we do not always have or know the correct monetary value off-hand. We make a best estimate but if we really had to sit down and make a list and check prices in detail, or if we take an item to a professional valuator, we often find that the value is different from what we thought.

We have also often heard how many people are generally underinsured – much of this is because they provide a best estimate of the value of their items to their broker instead of performing a detailed valuation of the cost of their belongings.

In addition, there is a difference between how much an item is worth and what the item would cost to replace. This is generally the other biggest cause for underinsurance.

Let us also consider another scenario that may lead to an underinsured position: if, for example, at the time that you took out your policy through a Maple Group broker, you had a three bedroom house and it was fully furnished, but now, five years later, you have added an additional two bedrooms with furniture and you then suffer a loss, the cost to replace all your household contents can be significantly higher, and if the insured value on your policy schedule
has not been kept up-to-date, you will also face underinsurance.

When you are underinsured, and you experience a partial loss, the insurer will not pay out the full value of your claim, as the insurer will apply so-called “average” to your claim. Average is calculated as the insured value as a percentage of the actual value of the insured property at the time of the loss. For example, if the insured value of your home contents is recorded as R700,000 on your policy schedule, but it is determined that the actual value of your contents is in fact R1,000,000 at the time of the loss, it means that the insurer will only pay 70% (R700,000
÷ R1,000,000) of your claim. In other words, you are 30% underinsured.

In the above example, if you experience a partial loss of let’s say R800,000, it means that the insurer will only pay 70% of R800,000 – in other words R560,000 of the claim, even though you are insured for R700,000. If, however, you experience a total loss (in this case, R1,000,000), the insurer will only compensate you for the insured value on your policy – in this case, R700,000.

Buildings

If you have to properly evaluate the correct sum insured amount for your house, you need to consider what it would cost to rebuild your house in the event of a total loss, as well as whether your house is financed and the amount that it is outstanding on your bond.

Another important factor to remember is that, in the event that your house needs to be rebuilt following a loss, professional fees can form a significant part of the overall cost. These fees would include architects , engineers’ and other associated costs that must also be taken into account when considering your sum insured.

Household Contents

Ideally, if you are to properly manage the value of your household content assets, you should have an inventory for your home on which you have recorded what furniture and appliances you have, as well as the values to replace those items. Each year, you should evaluate this list again to consider if there are any new purchases you should add, replace, or simply remove. This is most helpful when renewing the values or confirming the values for insurance purposes.

However, if there have been any special purchases made, or high value gifts received, it would stand you in good stead to keep the purchase documentation on file as proof of value. If the item is a gift, a valuation certificate and certificate of ownership would be useful, should the item become damaged or lost, which will make your insurance claims process that much simpler.

As a best practice, the values on your inventory should be reconfirmed with retail prices at least every 3 to 5 years to ensure that your annual incremental increases are on track.

Something else important to remember is that the insured value for your house contents should be sufficient to cover all your movable possessions inside the home. We don’t often think of certain items in our home as being attractive to theft and don’t assign a Rand value to them. Your insurer typically covers you for more than just theft and consideration must be given to cover items against other perils, such as fire and water damage. It is, therefore, important to remember those teaspoons in your top drawer and the patio furniture on the veranda.

The Average Waiver Benefit by MUA Insurance Acceptances (Pty) Ltd

MUA offers its Executive Policyholders the optional “Average Waiver Benefit” at an additional premium. If you select this benefit, MUA will waive the application of average at the time of loss – taking away the uncertainty of underinsurance and significantly simplifying a potential claim in the future. It is important to note, though, that any claim would still be limited to the maximum of the insured value that is stated in the policy schedule.

Subject to terms and conditions, MUA will appoint a valuator to value your house and/or contents, and the value determined by such valuator will be accepted as the insured value as stated in your schedule.

Ostrich in the sand?

Remember in the most recent years we have seen total losses in Knysna, St Francis Bay, Port Elizabeth, Durban, and Cape Town to name a few — all due to natural disasters such as fire and torrential rain. With the impact of climate change and the phenomena we are experiencing, none of us can afford to be underinsured. Be proactive in your approach to insurance — it will save valuable time and effort in the long term.

Used with permission from MUA Insurance Acceptances (Pty) Ltd.

19 July 2021 / by mangs