Author: Ubuntu Capital
With COVID causing medical aids a lot of uncertainty, many chose to postpone their annual increases – either because they were unsure of what it should be or in an effort to “help” their members. But the inevitable catch up has now resulted in certain medical aids implementing 3 increases in a period of 17 months: 2022 – in September/October 2022 2023 – in April 2023 and 2024 – in January 2024 While medical aids have announced average increases, what is the true increase? As an indication we selected two mid-range plans each from Discovery and Momentum. As Discovery has…
It is that time of year again when the medical aids have announced their rate increases and changes for 2022 and they will shortly be communicating with their members to confirm their options for next year. With the unusual events of the past almost two years, the process of trying to predict what increases are necessary to ensure the continued sustainability of medical aid funds has become somewhat of a crystal ball gazing exercise. This uncertainty has led some medical aids delaying their increases which has made the annual rate increase comparison between medical aids rather challenging! While COVID-19 has…
It is that time of year again when the medical aids have announced their rate increases and changes for 2022 and they will shortly be communicating with their members to confirm their options for next year. With the unusual events of the past almost two years, the process of trying to predict what increases are necessary to ensure the continued sustainability of medical aid funds has become somewhat of a crystal ball gazing exercise. This uncertainty has led some medical aids delaying their increases which has made the annual rate increase comparison between medical aids rather challenging! While COVID-19 has…
You often see people requesting advice on social medical as to what medical aid they should consider, often enquiring “Which is the best medical aid?”.
While financial advisors and other people in the investment industry often refer to compulsory savings and discretionary savings, many people are often not sure what the difference is between the two. To put it briefly: Compulsory savings refers to retirement savings and Discretionary savings refers to non-retirement or optional savings. In this article we will review the characteristics is each type of savings and the relevant implications. Compulsory savings Depending on an individual’s circumstances compulsory/retirement savings are typically made to a pension or provident fund, if you are an employee, and to a retirement fund if you are self-employed or…
On retirement the transition is obviously made from contributing/saving towards your retirement to drawing from your retirement funds. This is process is enabled by purchasing a annuity. There are two categories of annuities A guaranteed life annuity and A living annuity Guaranteed life annuity A guaranteed life annuity will pay a fixed income with annual increases for the period of your life. These annuities typically pay a lower amount owing to the lifetime guarantee. As you purchase this annuity from a single financial institution all of your risk is concentrated with this company and you are entrusting them with you…
Medical Aid Waiting Periods imposed by medical aid can be quite a bug bear for some people; however, before we outline how these may be applied let us understand why they exist in the first place.
What you need to know about Critical Illness Statistics have shown that there has been a worldwide increase in the number of critical illnesses being diagnosed which can probably be attributed to the changes to our lifestyles. When this is combined with the advances in medical care that allow people to recover from critical illnesses as well as being able to live for long periods with a critical illness, critical illness (or dread disease) cover is becoming far more relevant nowadays. The infographic below, prepared by Momentum, highlights some of these disturbing statistics reinforcing the requirement for this type of…