Who are Regent Insurance?
Regent Insurance provides a variety of short term insurance plans covering personal, group, vehicle, home and commercial insurance policies. The company is part of the Imperial Group, which is primarily a transport firm dealing with personal and freight logistics. Current board members for Regent Insurance are: H.R. Brody, chairman; J.J. Strydom, group CEO; A.N. Tennick, executive director; P.C.W. Hibbit, group CFO.
Where is Regent Insurance Located?
Regent Insurance has many offices spread across South Africa, but their main headquarters are located at 146 Boeing Road East, Elma Park, Edenvale, 1609. The company's mailing address is P.O. Box 674, Edenvale, 1610.
Regent Life Insurance – Consolidated Provider Plus
Regent individual life cover is sold under one main plan called Consolidated Provider Plus. The main benefits of the Consolidated Provider Plus plan with Regent Insurance are as follows:
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Family funeral cover – paid as a lump sum within 3 working days after Regent receives the necessary documents. This money can be used for funeral expenses or final medical costs. Regent funeral cover is for life and you can decide which family members receive coverage. Children will automatically be covered until the age of 21;
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Extended family funeral cover – gives you the option to insure your parents and up to 8 members of your extended family under the same conditions of the family funeral cover;
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If the main policy holder dies, Regent Insurance will pay insurance premiums for a further ten years so that family funeral cover and extended family funeral cover will still be valid;
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There is an option to add Savings Units to your life insurance plan, in which case the amount of money you decide to use for Savings Units will be invested by Regent's portfolio managers in order to give you a tax free lump sum pay out before you are 65;
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A Regent life insurance policy covers you in the amount of R30,000 to R150,000 and is paid out in a lump sum in the event of a death;
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Income protection in case of an accident – if you cannot work due to an accident you will get a monthly payout for up to 12 months as long as you are under 65;
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Personal accident cover will give you a cash payout if you lose a limb due to an accident, and if you are permanently disabled you'll receive a payout to replace your income;
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Retrenchment clause – allows you to claim a monthly payment for up to six months should you lose your job;
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In the event of a death that occurs more than 100km from where your beneficiaries wish you to be buried all transport costs will be covered as long as burial takes place within South Africa. Transport of cremated remains is also covered within South Africa. Beneficiaries will also have access to a helpline service for advice on funeral or cremation arrangements;
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Lawcall will give you access to a 24 hour a day helpline to get legal or tax advice, as well as rape counselling or family guidance counselling;
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Cash Back – you get a cash payout every five years as long as your policy is active and there are no overdue payments associated with your account;
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If you take unpaid maternity leave or lose your job twelve months or more after the start of your insurance policy, your premiums will be paid for up to six months.
In addition to Regent’s main life insurance plan, they also offers a selection of other policies that include life insurance:
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Education Provider Plus is designed to help parents pay for children's education, and is based around the Savings Units that are explained in the Consolidated Provider Plus Plan. Whilst this isn't a life insurance policy, in the event of the policy holder's death or injury Regent will continue to pay the premiums on this plan so that your child's education is still paid for;
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Savings Provider Plus is designed to help you save money for a home or retirement, and again is based on Savings Units. This policy has all the same life insurance benefits as the Consolidated Provider Plus plan, including life insurance, accident insurance, and funeral coverage. The main difference between the Savings and Consolidated plans is that under the Savings plan you put a greater percentage of your premium money into Savings Units and investments.
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Spouses Provider Plus is designed to make sure that your partner is taken care of in the event of your death or inability to work. From Regent's website there seems to be no difference between this plan and the Consolidated Provider plan, though presumably with the Spouses plan the beneficiary must be your partner, whilst with the Consolidated Provider plan you can choose any beneficiary.
How Are the Customer Reviews for Regent Insurance?
Currently, Hellopeter shows 209 customer reviews for Regent Insurance during the last 12 months. Of these, 175 were negative and 34 were positive. Unfortunately, these are not enough reports to come to any objective conclusion, especially seeing how not all of the reports are about Regent’s life insurance services, but rather about all their insurance services combined. Nevertheless, and even if customers are more likely to report negative experiences than positive ones, any company should work hard on maintaining an overall positive rating. On the upside, nearly all of the reports received a response from Regent’s representatives which shows that they take their customer's feedback seriously.
How User Friendly is the Regent Insurance Website?
Overall, Regent’s website was not too user friendly. This is due to several issues. Although the information is divided into categories,
which makes it easy to find the page that you want, the actual information itself is a bit lacking. Thus for example, there was minimum information about what policies do and don't cover – something which is critical in order to make an informed decision. Functionally, the site does automatically revert to its home page. This means that if you try to open links in different tabs (in order to compare plans, for example) each new tab simply opens to the home page rather than the link that you wanted. This made it especially frustrating. The bottom line is that there is room to improve.
Conclusions for Regent Insurance
Regent Insurance seems to provide a fairly extensive life insurance policy. However, the lack of in-depth information on their website makes it difficult to say for certain exactly what they are offering. As for the level of customer service we were unable to reach an objective conclusion due to the low amount of reports about the company. Regardless of the above uncertainty, we always advise that you read about at least 2-3 insurance companies and get at least 2-3 insurance quotes. You can get up to 2 Free insurance quotes by completing the form on the top right or by clicking on one of the insurance 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.
Article subject: Regent Insurance
