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What's a beneficiary?

A beneficiary is who you choose to get the death benefit payout from your insurance policy if there is a claim. Your beneficiaries will also receive any unlocked portion of your Wealth Bonus that’s available at the time of your death.

If you don’t add any beneficiaries, your payout will go to your estate.

Who can I add as a beneficiary?

You can nominate any person, trust or institution as a beneficiary. You can add up to 20 beneficiaries to your policy, and each beneficiary can be assigned a custom payout.

You can nominate your kids as beneficiaries, however, we cannot legally pay out claims to persons under 18 years old. For beneficiaries under 18 years, we can pay into a trust that you have set up for them, or, alternatively the payout will go to your estate. If you’re worried about how your kids will get your life insurance payout, speak to a registered financial advisor about what’s best for your situation. If you don’t have access to one, contact us and we'll put you in touch with a registered advisor.

You can add more than 1 beneficiary, in which case you’ll need to specify the proportion of the payout that should go to each beneficiary (for example, 50% for each of your 2 children.) You can nominate different beneficiaries per product (i.e. funeral cover and life insurance); or you can choose to keep the same beneficiaries across your entire policy. Any unallocated portion of your payout will automatically be paid to your estate.

How do I change or add beneficiaries to my policy?

You can add beneficiaries to your policy during the quote process, or leave it till later. If you want to change or add a beneficiary after you’ve already taken out a policy, you’ll need to contact us. Make sure you have your chosen beneficiary’s full name and date of birth ready for us. 

Once we’ve added the person to your policy, we’ll send you an updated policy schedule. It’s very important that you check to see whether their details are correct. Mistakes might cause delays when it comes time to pay out to them. In extreme cases we might not be able to pay your beneficiaries at all (in which case we’ll pay into your estate). 

What if my beneficiary doesn’t have a bank account?

All beneficiaries must have bank accounts to receive payouts. We cannot pay out to any beneficiaries who do not have a bank account in their own name. 

Can my beneficiary be a foreigner or live in a foreign country?

Yes, but they must have a South African bank account in their name. Payouts to overseas bank accounts can get tricky. In some cases we would be able to transfer the payout overseas, but it depends who they bank with, and in which country.

In other cases, we might require them to open an account in South Africa to receive the money. They might need to apply in person and provide several forms of identification, such as

  • proof of address 

  • Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) 

  • birth certificate 

  • valid passport 

and other FICA requirements, depending on the bank and bank account type. 

Who is the beneficiary of my policy?

You, the policyholder, are the beneficiary for disability benefits (products that pay out if you get disabled and can’t work anymore) or dread disease benefits (products that pay out if you get very sick). At Sanlam Indie, that's Critical Illness CoverIncome Protection or Disability Cover.

For death benefits like Life Cover + Quick PayoutFuneral Cover or Death Income Protection, you need to tell us who your beneficiaries are. We need their full name, date of birth and relationship to you. 

If you’ve added family members to your policy and they die before you (the main policyholder), you will get their payout .

How do I check the beneficiaries on my policy?

You can check your latest policy schedule that we sent you. Or simply log in to your Dashboard.

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Copyright © Sanlam Indie 2022. All Rights Reserved. Sanlam Indie's product offering is underwritten by Sanlam Life Insurance Limited, a licensed life insurer & financial services provider. Sanlam Indie is a division of Sanlam Life Insurance Limited - Reg No. 1998/021121/06. Sanlam Life Insurance Limited is an authorised FSP (No. 2759). Address: 1st Floor Glacier Place, 1 Sportica Crescent, Tygervalley, Cape Town, 7530

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