Africa-Press – South-Africa. Within days of Sanlam buying a stake in estate planning company Capital Legacy, its biggest competitor, Old Mutual, has announced plans to beef up its wills business too. The green insurer has acquired online wills startup, QuickWill.
Old Mutual said this acquisition will help it to offer a more comprehensive digital wills solution free of charge. Like most wills companies, Old Mutual is likely eyeing the fees it will get when it becomes the executor of those wills when a person dies. Insurers also benefit from these free wills through life insurance policies that they sell to help those bequeathing inheritance to their heirs pay debts and taxes due before courts can wind up their estates.
QuickWill already has more than 50 000 registered users and 10 000 finalised wills in its banks in just a few months of operation. Old Mutual said this would be an extension of the services that its financial advisors and business partners already offered.
This acquisition, backed by Old Mutual’s new growth and innovation unit, Next176, is one of a series of strategic moves Old Mutual has made to future-proof its business since it formed that unit. Next176 was founded to help Old Mutual create businesses that deliver disruptive and sustainable growth.
Although insurers have always had wills businesses, they’ve woken up to the growth potential of that business as new disruptors entered the market, reaching corners that traditional insurers have struggled to reach – especially low-income households. Old Mutual pointed out that a staggering 70% of South Africans still die without a valid will.
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