Metropolitan Life Insurance has introduced a funeral policy with various benefits for policyholders including waiver of premium payment on the retirement of the premium payer. This means that the policyholder retires with premium payment but still has policy and premium cover for life. Known as the Family Eternity Plus (FEP), the policy is a solution that seeks to address totally, the holistic needs of funerals of policyholders. It has been designed to provide immediate cash to finance the funeral expenses of the family of the policyholder. Speaking to JoyBusiness at the official launch of the product, Managing Director and Country Manager of Metropolitan Life Insurance Ghana Limited, Tawiah Ben-Ahmed said, “Funerals are a big thing in our country and we are of the opinion that the funerals solutions that the insurance market currently provide do not address the entire needs of the Ghanaian insuring public when it comes to their funeral needs.” By this same funeral policy, the policyholders get to benefit ‘One Week Funeral Celebration’ of 25% of the main funeral benefit selected. The client does not pay an extra premium for the benefit of up to 15,000 cedis. Additionally, when no claim is made in any period of 3 years, 30% of the third year premium is refunded to the policy owner with the option to invest it in a savings account attached to the product. The policy comes with other optional benefits like 40 days celebration benefit of 25%, 1st-anniversary celebration benefit, hospital cash benefit, automatic inflation adjustment option among others. Guest Speaker and MD of Cal Bank, Frank Adu lamented the cost incurred in funeral planning in recent times and lauded MetLife for the initiative. “The cost of funerals in Ghana, today, is very daunting and at the very least, you might be looking at something in the region of 40,000 cedis,” he said. On his part, Deputy Commissioner of Insurance, Michael Kofi Andoh, reiterated his outfit’s commitment to collaborating with NPRA and Finance Ministry to build annuities market for pensioners. “We know we have a new pensions system and I think beginning next year some people will begin retiring under the new system, we know they will be getting a lump sum from tier 2 and tier 3 and what are they going to be doing with all these monies?” he said.