Liberty Life, Alexander Forbes form alliance
Liberty Life Botswana Managing Director, Lulu Rasebotsa has urged burial societies to register with the Registrar of Societies and lean on Lerudi funeral scheme. This she said, will provide enhanced burial society offerings that will benefit members in terms of payouts and improve records management.
This follows a collaboration between Liberty Life Botswana and Alexander Forbes Financial Services Botswana that saw the two launching the Lerudi Funeral scheme last week.
Lerudi is a Setswana word meaning ‘shoulder’, a term synonymous with support, caregiving and provision of strength; all pledges the two organisations promised to observe as they provide Batswana with peace of mind and to assist those in need. In this collaboration, Liberty is an underwriter of insurance and Forbes a brokerage and administrator. Rasebotsa explained that the collaboration brings closer to answering the questions that everyone asks themeselves in relation to their passing; as to who will assit my family during this trying time? And will they get the dignified send-off that they deserve? From as low as P15,anyone can have a dignified sendoff, and families can mourn their loss without worrying about the high cost associated with sending off loved ones.
According to Rasebotsa, “this product therefore improves and builds upon burial societies already in existence both formally and informally in setswana culture to provide a single platform in which all these societies can function under one roof.” Stemming from the two companies’ understanding of how Botswana society and indeed funeral arrangements work, Lerudi Funeral Scheme carries additional support benefits over and above the actual funeral, to include the days leading up to the funeral. These benefits include contributions towards merapelo, airtime for making arrangements, and other relevant activities. The support benefits available also include a tombstone benefit, a grocery benefit and a cow benefit which will be paid as cash to the family.
Lerudi Funeral Scheme is only available to registered societies. The traditional structure of a burial society does not take into consideration things such as mortality rate, gender split and associated stastics when pricing, while Lerudi creates a more secure risk structure which will ensure that everyone receives their payout eventually, despite the number of claims. Unregistered societies are therefore highly encouraged to do the necessary registration paperwork in order to be eligible for the offering. Paul Masie, Managing Director of Alexander Forbes, explained that the motivation behind the scheme was part of their desire to help Batswana achieve financial freedom. “We realised a gap that existed between the monthly contributions made by the individuals and the actual payout they get from their contributions as the contributions are high while the payout was very low,” he asserted.
Accoding to Masie, using the economies of scale to the customers’ advantage by creating an Umbrella Fund, Lerudi will be able to offer the market, in this case Burial Societies, higher funeral benefits with low contributions. This partnership he said, made very good sense to create a product that leverages on both of the two companies’ strengths to provide a solution to all Batswana.” A prize was awarded to Alexander Forbes staff member Thato Boshomane who came up with the name of the scheme in an internal competition. “Lerudi sounded appropriate to me because I wanted to come up with a pure Setswana name which is a perfect product for Batswana in Botswana. Secondly I think the word Lerudi is quite unique, and the definition of the word Lerudi is shoulder. This fits in perfectly with the fact that when you lose someone in your life, you surely need a shoulder to cry on,” she explained.
