Old Mutual Funeral Cover Review 2026: The EasiPlus Line and How to Judge It

Funeral cover is the insurance category where brand trust does the most work — the product is bought on a promise of fast cash in the worst week, and South Africans reasonably reason that a 180-year-old institution will be there to pay. Old Mutual's funeral range (sold over the years under names like EasiPlus and its successors, through branches, agents, telesales and digital channels) trades exactly on that credibility. This review covers what the Old Mutual funeral proposition offers, the standard tests that judge any funeral product — and the honest comparison between insurance giants and funeral specialists in this category.

What the Old Mutual funeral range offers

The architecture follows the market's standard shape: a principal member with cover typically ranging from modest amounts up to R50,000–R100,000 depending on plan generation; family structures adding a spouse and children (children usually covered at scaled percentages of the adult benefit, as regulation requires for minors); extended-family riders for parents, in-laws and wider relatives at their own age-banded premiums; and optional extras that vary by product generation (benefit escalation to fight inflation, premium waivers on the principal's death, grocery or airtime add-on benefits). Product names and exact structures evolve — Old Mutual has refreshed its funeral shelf repeatedly — so treat any specific plan name as a pointer and the current official plan brochure as the truth. What persists across generations: underwriting-free entry (health questions replaced by waiting periods), payout speed as the core promise (reputable insurers pay within 24–48 hours of complete documents), and Old Mutual's distribution depth — branches and agents where digital-only insurers have none, which for many families is the product's real differentiator.

The six tests every funeral plan must pass

• Waiting periods: the standard six months for natural death (immediate accidental cover) — confirm the exact months per member type, and whether switching credit is granted for cover time served elsewhere;
• Member definitions: who counts as a child, parent, in-law — contractual definitions decide claims (our parent cover guide covers why this matters most for older lives);
• Premium vs benefit escalation: ask for both trajectories in writing — a premium climbing against a flat benefit is a product quietly shrinking;
• Grace and reinstatement: what one missed debit order costs, and whether reinstatement restarts waiting periods;
• Cease terms: what happens at advanced ages and on the principal's death (does family cover continue?);
• Claims process: the document list and the insurer's stated payout timeline — the entire point of the product, so make them say the number.

Giant vs specialist: the honest comparison

Old Mutual's funeral proposition competes against two different rivals. Against other giants (Sanlam, the bank insurers like Nedbank's, Hollard's partner products), the comparison is conventional: premiums per R10,000 of cover, definitions, escalation patterns — run it like-for-like in our funeral cover comparison. Against funeral specialists and parlour-linked schemes, the trade-offs are structural: specialists sometimes price keenly and bundle service benefits (the parlour handles the funeral itself), but service-benefit policies lock your family to one provider's offering, while cash benefits — the giants' standard — give the family control and portability. And against burial societies, the honest answer is complementarity: societies provide community support and practical help no insurer replicates, while regulated insurance provides contractual certainty no society can guarantee — many families rationally hold one of each, sized so the insurance covers the essential costs even if the society layer disappoints. What the giant's brand genuinely buys you: claims-paying certainty, regulatory accountability, and distribution you can walk into. What it doesn't automatically buy: the best price — funeral cover is one of the most price-dispersed products in South African insurance, and the trusted name deserves the same quote comparison as everyone else.

Buying it well: the deliberate version

Size the benefit on a real funeral budget rather than a round number (R30,000–R80,000 per adult life is the realistic range for most families' expectations). Audit existing cover first — the average household's accidental portfolio of society memberships, retailer policies and employer benefits usually contains overlap worth consolidating (one adequately-sized policy beats three small ones on fees, admin and lapse risk). Declare every member relationship precisely. Set the debit order for the day after payday. File the schedule, claims number and certified ID copies where the family will find them, and tell them — unclaimed funeral benefits exist at every large insurer because families didn't know. And diarise a two-yearly review: benefit adequacy against funeral-cost inflation, premium trajectory against the household budget, and the market against your current price. Funeral cover bought deliberately does its one job perfectly; bought casually, it's the most lapsed and least understood product in the country.

Strengths and weaknesses, honestly

• Strengths: institutional claims-paying credibility at scale; deep distribution (branches, agents, telesales, digital) that meets customers where they are; full family and extended-family structures; cash benefits that keep the family in control;
• Weaknesses: rarely the cheapest quote in a price-dispersed category — the brand premium is real; product-generation churn means older policies' terms differ from current brochures (holders of legacy EasiPlus-era plans should have terms reviewed rather than assumed); and agent-channel sales history means some households hold overlapping or mis-sized policies that were easy to sell and are worth rationalising now.

Reading a funeral quote like an actuary (a five-minute skill)

Funeral quotes hide their quality in per-rand arithmetic, and normalising them takes five minutes. Divide the monthly premium by the benefit to get the cost per R10,000 of cover for each life on the policy — this single number makes any two quotes comparable regardless of how the plans are packaged, and the dispersion it reveals across the market is consistently startling. Then adjust for the qualitative terms that per-rand pricing doesn't show: waiting-period lengths (shorter is worth something), escalation structure (benefit escalation that matches or beats premium escalation preserves the per-rand price over time; the reverse quietly inflates it), and the extras' real value (a grocery benefit or premium waiver has a price — decide if you'd buy it separately, because you are buying it). Finally, weight the insurer's payout-speed reputation — in this category, a day's difference in payment is part of the product. Five minutes per quote, three quotes, and you've done a more rigorous comparison than almost any funeral-cover buyer in the country; in the most price-dispersed category in South African insurance, that rigour routinely saves twenty to forty percent for genuinely identical protection — money that stays in the family budget every month for decades.

The document file: preparing the claim before the loss

Whichever plan wins your comparison, its value at claim time is decided by preparation done now. Build the family file: the policy schedule and plan number; the insurer's claims contact; certified copies of every covered member's ID (refresh certifications periodically — some institutions want them recent); and a one-page instruction naming who claims and how. At the loss itself, get multiple certified copies of the death certificate immediately — the insurer, the bank, the estate and Home Affairs processes each consume one — and submit the claim as one complete pack rather than in pieces; incomplete documentation is the only common reason reputable funeral payouts miss their 24–48-hour promise. It's an hour of admin that converts crisis week's worst task into a form-filling exercise, and it's the single highest-return hour in the whole funeral-cover journey.

Frequently asked questions

How fast does Old Mutual pay funeral claims?

Reputable large insurers pay within 24–48 hours of complete documentation — confirm the current stated timeline when buying, and prepare the document file in advance so completeness never delays the clock.

What waiting periods apply?

The market standard: around six months for natural-cause death, immediate cover for accidental death. Confirm per member type, and ask about waiting-period credit if you're switching with time served.

Can I cover my whole family on one plan?

Yes — spouse, children and extended-family members within the plan's definitions and age limits, each at their own benefit level and premium contribution.

Is an old EasiPlus policy still valid?

In-force legacy policies remain contractual — but their terms may differ from current products. Have an old policy's benefits, escalation and definitions reviewed before deciding to keep, top up or replace it (and never cancel before replacement cover's waiting period is handled).

Is Old Mutual funeral cover expensive?

Typically mid-market — the brand rarely loses badly on price and rarely wins the cheapest-quote contest. In a category this price-dispersed, the like-for-like comparison is worth twenty minutes whatever brand you end up choosing.

Funeral cover or life insurance — which do I need?

Different jobs: funeral cover is fast, small and immediate; life cover is large and takes longer to pay. A household with dependants usually needs both — see our life cover guide for the bigger machine.

Can I hold Old Mutual funeral cover alongside a burial society?

Yes, and many families rationally do — the society provides community support and practical help; the regulated policy provides contractual cash. Size the insurance so essentials are covered even if the society layer disappoints, and count both when auditing for overlap.