If someone in your immediate family dies while you’re a member of the Engen Pension Fund, you will receive a benefit to help you pay for the funeral. If you die while you’re a member of the fund, your family will receive the benefit. The funeral benefit is only applicable to active employees and not pensioners.

What does the insurance Act say?

Under the Insurance Act, group funeral policyholders must take out the policy exclusively for the benefit of a beneficiary of the policy. Your employer has a group funeral policy with Momentum, the insurer. A beneficiary of the policy must be an employee of the employer or a person nominated by the employee whom the insurer will pay the benefit to. You can nominate a natural person or a juristic person such as a trust or legal entity, provided that the juristic person is not the policyholder of the group policy, such as in your case where the employer is the funeral policy holder. Previously Engen, at the death of an employee, would pay the spouse or family member of the deceased employee and would then be refunded by Momentum as the Insurer. The Insurance Act prohibits the payment of group funeral benefits to an employer as has happened until now. All the benefits under the policy must be paid directly to the beneficiary of the policy.

What should you do?

There are certain things you can do to get your affairs in order, to make it easier for your loved ones when you pass away. It’s a way of taking care of the people you leave behind and taking control of what happens to your possessions. Some of the things you can do include drawing up a will and nominating the beneficiaries for your employee benefits.

What happens if no beneficiaries are nominated for your funeral benefit?

If there are no nominated beneficiaries for your funeral benefit, the benefit will be paid to your estate, which may not only result in the payment of executor fees but also means your loved ones must wait far longer to receive the benefits, and might receive less than they would have received if you’d simply taken the time to nominate beneficiaries. The funeral beneficiary nomination form is particularly important for the quick payment of funeral benefits.

When do the changes under the Momentum group policies become effective?

Momentum Corporate applied for and received an extension of time to prepare to comply with the requirement in relation to group funeral benefits from the Prudential Authority (Regulator) until 31 December 2022. Momentum will be applying the payment clause provisions of the Insurance Act for group funeral benefits with effect from 1 January 2023. One of the reasons for granting the extension was to afford all members enough time to complete their nominations. This means that we will continue to make payments according to the current policy wording until 31 December 2022.

Nominating Funeral cover beneficiaries 

You can only nominate one beneficiary to receive your total funeral benefit and one alternate if the first nominee passes away before you or is unable to receive the funeral benefit.  It is important that you consider the term and conditions on the form with regards to who would qualify as a beneficiary.

What do you need to do urgently: Nominate the beneficiary to receive the funeral benefit in the event of your passing

Complete the funeral beneficiary nomination form under the Forms tab. Click here to download the Funeral Beneficiary Nomination form.  When completed please submit the form using the ServiceNow  Engen Service Portal.

Important

• As this is new legislation, this form should be completed by every staff member, even if you have completed a retirement fund beneficiary nomination form previously (which is an equally important, but separate matter).
• Regularly update this form so that the funeral benefit can be paid to the right person without any unnecessary delay.

Tell someone

Keep copies of all important documents and information in one place. Remember to tell your loved ones about it so they know where to find it if you pass away.