Old Mutual - ****py service

Here is my story or my late friend Melanie Clifford’s story. She had rheumatoid arthritis

I got to know Melanie when she moved into my granny flat about 6-7 years back. About a year or two after the fact, she started applying for her policies (I think it was a 2-in-1) from Old Mutual to be paid out to her. Old Mutual told her she needs death certificates of her parents and proof of her late father’s bank account to see that there was no money at the time of his death (Standard Bank), all because she named her parents as beneficiaries.

Now just for information: At this stage her dad passed about 10-15 years already and her mother about 5 years.

She went to hell and back, but every time she met with a brick wall.

1. She went to the Master of the Court to get the final account of the estate – showed there was nothing to inherit. She got that eventually after a lot of drama. 2. Then she went to Standard Bank to get the final bank account statement of her late father from them. There they told her they need a death certificate with his fingerprints on (after 10-15 years!!! – where will she get that from?). 3. She contacted 1st Ave Funeral Home in Walmer, they did the cremation. As expected, they told her they only keep documentation for 5 years. So that was a bust too!!! 4. She then went to the Department of Home Affairs to apply for a death certificate with fingerprints on. They told her head office is busy putting all the old certificates in the system. She waited and waited, but still to this day nothing was received.

So, this is the aftermath:

She waited and every month she checked on Old Mutual every other month and Dept every month. All this time her sickness flared up and she was in a lot of pain.

About a year into this situation, the monies were paid into her Nedbank account, but less R20 000 and on hold (she couldn’t access it). She went to Old Mutual to query, first they told her it was admin and tax monies, but she lodged a query with SARS too, they told her its not tax related. Then Old Mutual took the monies back out of her Nedbank account.

Now it was back to square one, waiting for everything to fall into place. Melanie even complained at the Ombudsman. He looked into it, but she died without any results.

About a year before her death, she moved into a municipal flat. She suffered tremendously because of this situation. It is already two years and still nothing was paid out to her estate too!!! Melanie died because of this stress and no way to provide for herself.

The church in charge of the flat complex is Executors of her Estate, they also app**** at Old Mutual for that monies, but to no avail. Its almost 2 years since Melanie’s death.

Thank you Helen – A heartbroken friend ***