Diaspora Insurance clarify Zimnat confusion…. read the full statement from CEO

By Jeff Madzingo | CEO, Diaspora Insurance |

Firstly, we would like to apologise for the confusion caused by Zimnat Life regarding the migration of your policy to the new provider. Diaspora Insurance, the owners of the bespoke Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan (DFCP), are committed to provision of the best products and service to our clients.

Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan has always been underwritten by different insurers in different markets. Evidently, Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan has been available to Zambians worldwide as well for years underwritten Madison Life of Zambia.

In the same fashion, Zimnat Life’s responsibility in the relationship was to underwrite for the Zimbabwe diasporans but we no longer need their services for a number of reasons.

Our expectation was for Zimnat Life to be thankful for the business we gave to them over the years but instead they are trying to mislead clients into staying with Zimnat Life despite overwhelming evidence that this is not in the best interest of our clients.

For the record Zimnat Life was getting free business from Diaspora Insurance and has never invested anything to build the brand or acquire any of the clients.

Why We Are Changing Underwriters/Reinsurers:

Our commitment to treat our customers fairly and protect their investment has driven us to look for bigger and stronger partners who have a global presence to insure the DFCP book going forward. We have decided to move the DFCP book from Zimnat because of several reasons:

1. The currency volatility in Zimbabwe is very bad for long term investments like the DFCP. After dollarization for a decade, on 21 February 2019 the Zimbabwe government adopted RTGS as the official currency and this had a devasting effect of wiping off people’s US$s savings, investments and policies issued by the likes of Zimnat Life.

In 2019 Zimnat Life launched a US$ policy called Gadziriro allegedly for its local market although they sold it to diasporans as well. When the Government of Zimbabwe reintroduced the Zimbabwe Dollar on 24 June 2019 as local currency and banned trading in US$s, all the clients who had paid for the US$ policies lost their investments again.

If any insurer in Zimbabwe had capacity to protect people from these currency uncertainties surely, they should have done so and Zimnat Life would have made good people’s losses. What guarantee is there that the diasporans’ policies on DFCP if they continue to be underwritten in Zimbabwe are immune to the recurrences of all the losses that people have suffered repeatedly in the Zimbabwe insurance industry?

2. Armed with some inside information and in pursuit of treating our customers fairly culture, our informed position is that our policies and long-term protection as diasporans are not safe.

3. Our DFCP policies at Zimnat Life are not re-insured with an international reinsurer to enhance DFCP clients’ protection and this is not sustainable given that the policy is in US$s.

4. The unstable economic environment in Zimbabwe. Diaspora Insurance are patriotic as witnessed by our involvement in our community and supporting national events like the successful Zimbabwe women’s World Cup team in July 2019 and support for Cyclone Idai victims. However, the unfolding economic situation in Zimbabwe has created a lot of anxiety to us as businesspeople. Zimnat Life operates 100% in Zimbabwe and invests in bond notes/RTGS. Inflation is now more than 500% right now. This level of inflation will wipe out all investments made. We have been there before as a country in 2007/2008 when hyperinflation wiped out all investments and rendered insurance products worthless. We believe we are going down that path again.

Simple logic makes it very easy to conclude that it’s a matter of time before diasporans lose all their hard earned US$s by continuing to protect themselves on a long-term policy insured by a third world insurer operating in a very unstable economy and the insurer does not even re-insure the policies. Diaspora Insurance cares for its clients and this is why we have decided to move the Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan book to Munich Re.

Why Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan is Re-insuring into Munich Re

Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan is now going to be underwritten by GuardRisk International and re-insured into Munich Re, the biggest re-insurer in the world. Munich Re’s turnover in 2018 was US$63 billion and holds more than US$350 billion in assets. This guarantees our long-term protection not only for us as diasporans but our young children we have added on the DFCP policies.

Is Your DFCP Policy Changing In And Way?

The only change on your DFCP policy is the underwriter and we are double guaranteeing your protection going forward by re-insuring with the biggest re-insurance conglomerate in the world.

Munich Re is taking over the policies as they are. DFCP clients are not losing anything because their protection start dates are not changing so is their terms and conditions, cover amounts, premiums and covered lives.

Why Zimnat Is Refusing To Be Dropped As An Underwriter:

Zimnat Life are trying to confuse DFCP clients and their ultimate interest is the Diaspora Dollar not our long-term protection as diasporans.

Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan clients have never dealt directly with Zimnat Life because their responsibility like Madison Life of Zambia is just to underwrite. There is a Service Level Agreement that Zimnat Life has been blatantly breaching in pursuit of the diaspora dollar.

Zimnat Life’s Missed Premium & Losing Policy Gimmicks:

Zimnat Life has deliberately been misleading people by saying they missed their September 2019 premium which is not correct.

Clients have been threatened that their policies will lapse. The truth is that Zimnat Life is under obligation to honour claims up to three months of missed premiums and that is global practice even in first world markets like UK.

As Diaspora Insurance, we are guaranteeing all DFCP clients that their policies remain in force and are not negatively affected in any way by the migration.

The only reason for these misinformation is to create panic and blind-fold people into staying with Zimnat Life.

In the event of Claim, God Forbid:

The claim process remains exactly the same with a guarantee to settle with 24 hrs of proof of death in to any bank account worldwide. Support as always is only a call away: Office +44 121 295 1116 or Mob/WhatsApp: +44 770 3838 304.

Moving To Munich Re – The Steps:

1. We have updated nearly all clients’ details ready for migration and clients who haven’t updated their details need to contact our UK Call Centre immediately.

2. We have started issuing all clients their new DFCP policies underwritten by GuardRisk International and re-insured by Munich Re.

3. For Clients on Direct Debit we are in the process of resetting Direct Debits and your monthly premiums will continue as usual and your direct debit will show as Diaspora Insurance on your bank statement going.

Communication From Zimnat Life:

Zimnat Life has chosen to breach our Service Level Agreement by contacting directly for the first time. Our advice is that you ignore any such unsolicited contacts and for any queries contact our UK Call Centre as per norm.

Thank you for your business and support,

Jeff Madzingo
CEO, Diaspora Insurance