The maths behind …
The world ’ s only Posthumous Life Policy™
The brief was clear : what would Rev Dr William Anderson Soga ’ s life cover amount to if he had a life insurance policy ? The problem ? Where does one even start with this calculation as Soga passed away more than a century ago ? The Professional spoke to Quinton Augustine , PPS Group Executive Member Value Proposition , and Anton Hofman , Senior Manager : Group Product Collaboration at PPS , to find out how this was done .
R9 million . That is what – in today ’ s terms – an insurance company would probably have had to pay to Soga ’ s family at the time of his death if he had a life insurance policy in place .
“ There are many ways in which we could have calculated this value such as researching the actual salaries of doctors working around the turn of the previous century and the various risks graduate professionals were exposed to ,” says Augustine .
“ However , we decided that the easiest way to do it , was to ‘ transport ’ Soga to the ‘ modern world ’ and base our calculations and assumptions on the ‘ average doctor of today .”
Hofman explains that when one looks at Soga ’ s life story , there is good enough reason to believe that this would be a good route to follow as he led a fairly similar ( and very busy life ) compared to many doctors practising today .
“ Soga graduated as a doctor of medicine from the University of Glasgow on 13 April 1883 . He married Mrs Soga in 1885 and they both travelled to the Cape . Soga started his missionary work in a region of the Eastern Cape in 1886 and in the same year , the couple had their first child . At this point in his life , Soga would have understood the need to have life insurance in place to leave a legacy to his family should he pass away ,” reasons Hofman .
He adds that as Soga was one of only about 500 medical professionals registered to work in the Cape Colony , it is estimated
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We assumed that he purchased cover after graduating , which is in line with our focus on signing up graduate professionals .
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