Long-Term Insurance Amendment Bill Tabled in Parliament

Posted 08 June 2026 Written by Acts Online
Category Financial Sector

Brought to you by SA Legal Academy: The Long-term Insurance Amendment Bill has been formally tabled in Parliament, introducing measures to regulate the holding of multiple funeral policies for the same beneficiaries.

The private member’s bill, introduced by United Democratic Movement (UDM) MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, follows the publication of an explanatory summary gazetted more than two years ago. The draft legislation seeks to amend the Long-term Insurance Act, No. 52 of 1998 to protect consumers from premium exploitation and over-insurance within the funeral cover sector.

According to the memorandum on the objects of the Bill, the proposed amendments focus on:

  • Regulating the practice of holding multiple funeral policies with the same beneficiaries to prevent duplicate premium payments where payouts may be restricted.
  • Ensuring that long-term insurers implement verification mechanisms to identify existing policies before issuing new funeral cover to the same policyholder or beneficiary.
  • Enhancing disclosure requirements at the point of sale to ensure consumers are fully informed of policy limitations and payout caps across multiple products.

What this means for you, your business, or your clients

  • For yourself: No direct individual compliance obligations; however, individual professionals should review their personal and family funeral policy portfolios to identify and consolidate any redundant or overlapping policies.
  • For your business: Compliance officers and legal advisors within financial services firms must monitor the progress of this Bill to prepare for potential IT and system integrations required to verify existing policies during client onboarding.
  • For your clients: Long-term insurers and financial services providers must prepare to audit their product distribution channels, update disclosure templates, and train intermediaries to prevent the mis-selling of multiple funeral policies to identical beneficiaries.

Originally published at https://legalacademy.co.za/news/read/long-term-insurance-amendment-bill-tabled-in-parliament

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