FNB Life Insurance – Company Background
FNB Life Insurance is a division of First National Bank, one of South Africa's leading banking institutions, and according to their website they're the oldest bank in the country, dating back to 1838. In 1998 FNB became a fully owned subsidiary of FirstRand, and the company now provides full banking services. FNB Insurance is the insurance division of FNB, set up to provide insurance services to the bank's customers. Insurance policies are underwritten, or ‘backed’, by RMB Structured Insurance Limited, whilst Mutual and Federal deals with the brokering, issuing and administration involved with the policies. According to the FNB's website the company participates in both environmental and social responsibility programmes, including an anti crime campaign.
Where is FNB Life Insurance Located?
The mailing address for FNB Life Insurance is P.O. Box 1153, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2000. The company is physically located on the 6th floor of First Place, Bank City on the corner of Simmonds and Pritchard Streets in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 2001.
What Services Do FNB Insurance Offer?
FNB offers a range of insurance services, including home, car and life insurance. Below we will focus on FNB Life Insurance options.
FNB Life Insurance Options
Under “FNB Life Insurance”, you can chose from three options which complete each other: life insurance, accidental death insurance and funeral insurance.
FNB Life Insurance
FNB Life Insurance is intended to give peace of mind to those looking for security in the event of death, injury, disablement or even job loss. This policy does not include accidental death (see separate policy details here below). The main options available in the policy are:
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Coverage from R200,000 to R3 million, which is paid in a lump sum in the event of death;
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You have the option of adding an incapacity benefit, which will provide coverage should illness or accident lead you to become disabled or unable to take care of yourself. Coverage is between R200,000 and R2 million, though it must be smaller or equal to the coverage of your life insurance, and a percentage will be paid out in a lump sum depending on the kind of disability you have;
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You have the option of adding retrenchment cover, which will protect you should you lose your job. Retrenchment cover will pay you a lump sum that is 5% of your life insurance coverage and a minimum of R100,000. Your FNB Life Insurance policy premiums will also be paid for six months;
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Coverage is available to South African citizens or permanent residents between the ages of 19 and 64 who have a valid FNB bank account;
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There are two payment options, you can pay the same sum for every month of your policy, or you can begin by paying smaller premiums and your payments will increase by 5% each year.
Overall, it seems that the basic FNB policy is not as comprehensive as some of the other life insurance policies offered by other companies that we reviewed, especially due to the fact that many of the above ‘benefits’ are not included in the policy but rather at an added cost. Another catch is that you would have to have an FNB bank account.
FNB Accidental Death Insurance
FNB accidental death insurance is designed to give you coverage in the event of death by accident. As such it does not cover death from natural causes, as the FNB Life Insurance coverage does. The important details of FNB accidental death insurance are as follows:
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Accidental death cover pays out a lump sum in the event of the death of any of the insured persons;
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Both individual and family plans are available, a family plan covers the policy holder, their spouse, and up to five children;
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Coverage is available from R100,000 to R400,000, with the spouse receiving 50% of the coverage amount, and children being covered for R10,000 if a family policy is signed;
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There's a double accidental death benefit, which means that if the insured or his/her spouse is killed whilst being the driver or passenger in a private car the payout amount will double;
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“FNB Take Me Home” service is also included. This gives you six free trips per year, where the designated driver service will pick up you and your car and make sure you return home safely after a night out drinking. This service is available in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth and George so long as the journey is not more than 50km;
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Policies are available to any South African citizen or permanent resident between the ages of 18 and 64 who hold a valid FNB bank account.
FNB Funeral Plan
The third FNB Life Insurance option is their funeral plan which offers payout in the event of a death of any of the policy holders. The payout is much lower than with FNB Life Insurance cover or FNB accidental death policies but this of course makes sense seeing how this policy is mainly to cover the fees involved with the funeral. The important points of the funeral plan are:
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Coverage is up to R60,000. The minimum R10,000 individual coverage is R40 a month (relevant to the date this article was posted);
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The policy may include yourself, your spouse, up to 8 children, 4 parents or parents in law, and 8 extended family members in one plan;
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FNB claims that they provide a fast turnaround time on payouts once all documents are received. The catch of course is in the phrase “once all documents are received” and therefore they could technically keep asking for more documents. It would have been good to know in advance exactly which documents they require but we were unable to find this information);
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The policy holder and their spouse will have double accidental death benefit, for coverage of up to R120,000 should you or your partner die whilst driving or being a passenger in a private car;
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Coverage is for life for all insured people, including children added to a plan (i.e. child coverage doesn't stop once the child reaches 18);
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Should the plan holder die there is 12 months of free coverage for every other person covered by the plan;
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For the main plan holder there is a R5,000 memorial benefit available;
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Policies are available to South African citizens and permanent residents aged between 19 and 64 who have a valid FNB bank account.
How are the Customer Reviews for FNB Life Insurance?
The customer review website Hellopeter, registers 281 customer reviews for FNB Insurance over the past 12 months, of which 254 were negative and 27 were positive. However, it is important to note that these reviews are for all of FNB's insurance services (including car and home insurance) and not only for their life/funeral insurance, which makes reaching an objective conclusion a bit difficult. Many of the reviews were about customer service and waiting periods for the processing of claims. Unfortunately, whilst a few reviews did receive feedback from an FNB representative, the vast majority have gone unanswered which was a bit surprising.
How User Friendly is the FNB Insurance Website?
In general, the FNB website is very user friendly. There's plenty of information provided to help you make your decision, and information 
is divided into neat categories that are easily accessed, meaning that it's simple to find the exact information that you're looking for. We also liked that in many cases FNB provides tables to give examples of how much premiums are likely to be for different kinds of coverage, giving you a clear idea of how much you'll be spending. The only small thing perhaps worth changing is that certain terms aren't clearly defined leaving the reader unclear as to what the term means. For example: “Double accidental death benefit” was clearly defined on the “Accidental Death Insurance” page, but was not defined at all on the “Funeral Plan” page, which could be a little confusing if you haven't read all their policies.
Our Conclusions for FNB Life Insurance
FNB Life Insurance provides three different policies, each including a variety of features. Their website is customer friendly and makes finding the information you need relatively easy. As for their level of customer service, it was hard to reach an objective conclusion due to the relatively few reports, even though the majority of these were less positive. As always, we strongly advise that you compare between at least 2-3 Life Insurance companies before deciding. You can get up to 2 life insurance quotes for Free by completing the form on the top right or by clicking on one of the banners.
* Disclaimer: We do not represent any of the companies, products and/or services reviewed, published or advertised on this website. Nor are we financial, health or insurance professionals or services provider. If you request a quote or purchase a product/service, it will not necessarily be given by the company reviewed on any specific page. Any decisions you make based on the information presented is at your own discretion and we advise that before doing so, you consult with the relevant professional.
Main subject: FNB Life Insurance
