Watching your child live their dreams and fulfill their purpose in life is truly rewarding. Giving them access to quality education can set them firmly on the path to their greatness.
And while quality private education costs more than ever before, and educational costs continue to rise owing to a multitude of factors including inflation, the parents or guardians are still obligated to provide the same to their child.
While in the course of assuring a good education for their children, they have to shell out more than ever before, and it often causes a huge financial burden on the families’ resources.
Investing in a child education plan from the very beginning can ensure that such concerns do not crop up when the child is actually in need of money. It also ensures that the child’s dreams will be fulfilled, even if the parent is no longer around.
With that said, walking this journey requires you to have a partner who shares in this vision to power their dreams by equipping them to thrive in and build a better world.
NCBA Bank Kenya Plc couldn’t have come on board at the best time. The bank in partnership with ICEA has rolled out an education policy dubbed ‘NCBA Educator’, which aims at providing financial relief to parents or guardians at different points in their child’s education.
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What is NCBA Educator?
In an interview with Soko Directory, the Ass General Manager, and Head of Retail Life Assurance, Mr. Samson Aliton Okello explained that this is an education policy developed to enable a parent or guardian to meet the education expenses for their child.
He went ahead to state that the policy is designed to not only cater to the education expense of your child but also act as a savings plan that any interested party can buy for any investment/goal they have, including weddings, and property purchases, among others.
“This NCBA Educator policy is designed to enable a parent or guardian to put aside as little as 2,000 shillings monthly and receive partial payments at agreed intervals throughout the term of the policy, or a lump sum payment at the end of the policy term”, he said.
Why NCBA Educator Policy?
According to Mr. Okello, education through the normal system is good but sometimes it does not stick to the needs of the child.
“We are proving our customers with an opportunity to accumulate funds enough to allow their children to undertake their education at places of their choice if they start today.
“The partnership is a guarantee that everything stipulated in the plan will be handled with professionalism and diligence. In addition, this plan will allow you a 15 percent tax relief from the premium you are paying. Most importantly, the funds will be disbursed efficiently, a maximum of 7 days”, Okello explained further.
How does the Policy Work?
The parent/guardian has the flexibility of choosing today, at what stage they would like the policy to cover the cost of their child’s education.
According to Head of Business Development ICEA lion, Anthony Muthiora, this plan is accessible to anybody who falls under the eligibility criteria, whether they have an account with the NCBA Bank or not.
The maturity of this plan depends on various factors such as the age of the child today, the dream of the parent or guardian, as well as the timing, or how urgently they need the education funds.
Meanwhile, the flexibility of the premiums is closely tied to the goal of both the parents/guardian and the child.
“The premiums are very flexible because they depend on the goals of the parents. There is no maximum limit. The minimum amount required under this plan is 2000 shillings and the parents/guardian have the liberty of choosing a payment frequency that bests suits them, as long as the overall monthly unit is complete.
“The payment frequencies are monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, and annually. However, you can still make a daily, or weekly payment provided you complete the monthly unit,” said Anthony Muthiora.
The minimum policy term for this policy is 8 years whereas the maximum term is 20 years. A policy term refers to the period for which the policy remains in force from the date of purchase to the date of final maturity settlement.
Who is Eligible for the plan?
The product can be accessed by anybody between the age of 18 years and 62 years old. In the event it’s a minor who wants to opt-in the policy, they will have a parent, elder sibling, or a relative stand in for them.
Considerations can also be made to accommodate customers who are above the maximum entry age of 65 with a corresponding change in the monthly premiums for a similar sum assured.
What are the minimum and maximum monthly premiums for the policy?
The minimum monthly premium for this policy is 2,000 shillings. However, it is the desire of every parent to be able to provide for his or her children the best education money can buy. It is therefore advisable to calculate the premium with the end in mind.
With an estimated termly/yearly school fee of the desired school, a quotation is generated and a relevant monthly premium arrived at. The maximum monthly premium is determined by the customer’s desired partial and final maturity estimates.
This means that if you can, for instance, save as much as 10, 000 shillings and above depending on where you want your child to be in the future.
The Benefits of Having the NCBA Educator Policy Plan
According to Sam Okello, this is an awesome product that offers additional benefits to both the parent and child apart from education funds.
Some of the major benefits of having this plan include:
- Medical Second Opinion
This gives the insured, spouse (if on joint life basis), and named an opportunity to have their diagnosis, reviewed by a pull of doctors globally to confirm or provide an alternative to what had been previously diagnosed.
In the event of loss of life, this plan has an inbuilt waiver of payment, which enables the insurance to pay all outstanding premiums such that by the time the policy matures the funds for education are still provided.
- Double Death benefit
In the event of loss of life, the beneficiaries will be the amount promised. Also, all the other outstanding premiums will be paid by the company such that at maturity, the beneficiaries still get the fund for education.
“The immediate payment in the event of a loss will help the family to cope with the financial issues during the grieving period while awaiting maturity of the education funds”, Stated Sam.
- Critical Illness
In the event the insured has been diagnosed with some critical conditions, as defined by the policy, this plan ensures the insurance pays up to 50 percent of the sum assured, a maximum of 5 million shillings.
- Permanent Total Disability
This is an optional benefit. The Insurer shall pay the Assured Amount if an Insured Parent suffers a Permanent Total Disability as a result of an Accident or Sickness that renders the Insured Parent unable to follow any occupation for which he/she is reasonably suited by education, training, or experience and is not following any other occupation for-profit and reward.
- Waiver of premium
Premiums payable up to the maturity date of the Policy are waived upon the death of the insured parent or in the event of joint life cover, upon the first death of either of the insured parents.
- Unemployment benefit
The Insurance will waive the premiums for a maximum period of 6 months for loss of income due to the retrenchment, restructuring, or winding up of the employer’s business.
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What Happens in case the insured is not able to pay the premiums?
In case the insurer is not able to remit their savings because you cannot get a gainful income, the insurance will pay premiums for up to 6 months, with hopes that the person would have secured something at the end of the six months and pick up from there.
Moreover, the insurer will allow you to come back and pay the arrears if you can and still achieve your goal. You can also opt to redate the policy, which means you can change the expiry year.
“However, assuming you cannot afford to bounce back totally, you can decide to leave it there. The amounts you have remitted will accrue and at maturity, the funds you had invested plus the returns paid back to you. And in case of termination, the insurer must wait for a maximum of three years”, Okello said.
You can access this product by;
- Visiting the NCBA or ICEA Lion offices
- Dialing contact center numbers, +254 20 2884444
- Writing an email to the official email address of the two companies
The first-ever life insurance plan rolled out by the partnership, is looking to offer the customers a one-stop financial shop, where their financial, investment, and protection needs are taken care of.
So, if you are a parent or guardian on the look for saving and investment opportunities towards retirement, purchasing a home, or starting a business to create a better life for your family as well as securing the future education of your child, then NCBA Educator plan could be your best option.
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