Discovery Global Education Protector Qorus Innovation in Insurance Awards 2018 - Winner

As part of our commitment to be a powerful force for social good, Discovery set about developing a product that could help with the tertiary education funding crisis facing South Africa. In South Africa, it can easily cost in excess of $170 000 to educate a single child from crèche through to the end of their tertiary education. With the trend to start schooling at an earlier age, and with education inflation consistently exceeding salary inflation, these high costs are impacting parents’ ability to save and protect for their children’s tertiary education. In recognition of these challenges and in line with our core purpose, Discovery Life introduced the Global Education Protector benefit. This benefit not only covers the actual cost of tuition from crèche to the end of tertiary education for client’s children, should a life-changing event happen to a parent, but uses the parents improved health and wellness over the duration of the insurance policy to fund up to 100% of their children’s tertiary education, even if they don’t claim. This is achieved by optimising the Discovery shared-value insurance model - the resultant long-term risk surplus derived through the parent’s healthy behaviour change is channelled into a benefit mechanism that funds their children’s tertiary tuition fees. Since the launch of this product, Discovery Life has been recognized for its innovation around this critical societal issue, evidenced by the significant take-up that we have had on this product as well as the tremendous media coverage and interest it has generated.