Dynamic Research Journals

Journal of Economics and Finance (DRJ-JEF)

Volume 6 ~ Issue 1 (January, 2021) pp: 24-33
ISSN (Online): 2520-7490
www.dynamicresearchjournals.org

Demand Factors Influencing Funeral Insurance Cover in Zimbabwe

1Knowledge Jonasi, 2Kosmas Njanike and 3Tendai Towo
1
Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe
2
Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe
3
Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe

Abstract: A number of developing countries especially in Africa have funeral insurance services afflicted by poor
uptake and in some instances the services are of poor quality. The study investigated the demand factors
influencing the uptake of funeral insurance products in Zimbabwe. The study made use of data from Finscope
Survey (2014) to estimate logit models. Linear Probability Models were applied for robustness check. The demand
factors influencing one’s decision to get funeral insurance policy or not in Zimbabwe was analysed. The study
found factors affecting the demand for funeral insurance policy cover include education, health status, social
media, salaried, internet, death, marital status, income, financial advice, mobile user, age, gender and head.
Employment history, social media, married and location were not significant. But for those not significant they
had different signs showing that there is some relationship. The establishment of financial advisory on different
platforms and by financial institutions can help people manage risks. Funeral insurance firms can partner with
other financial services providers and other mobile services providers to increase their market. Partnering some
religious sects and cultural groups would also improve percentage of people with funeral cover in the country.
Keywords; Funeral Insurance, Demand, Factors, Zimbabwe

I. Introduction
The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of funeral insurance cover in Zimbabwe. Gitau
(2013) describes insurance as an arrangement by which a company or government agency provides a guarantee
of compensation for specified losses, damages, illness or death in return for payment of a premium. If not properly
managed, losses suffered may be detrimental. One common means of funding funerals is through funeral
insurance. Lee and Vaughan (2008) postulate that insurance is an important product that helps managing risk.
According to Holton (2004), risk is exposure to a proposition of which one is uncertain. The world over insurance
includes products such as motor vehicle insurance, property insurance, marine insurance as well as funeral
insurance, just to mention but a few. According to Berg (2017), funeral insurance is one of the earliest documented
forms of insurance and its role cannot be underestimated as death can knock without prior notice.
Funeral insurance has existed throughout history and across the globe, and it is probably still the most
popular type of insurance in sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike traditional insurance, funeral insurance is not a grudge
purchase but rather a proactive decision, (Bester, 2008). Roth (2001), Ramsay and Arcila (2013) agree that without
proper and adequate provision, a funeral can cost between four times and 15 times of a household’s monthly
income and significantly impact the livelihood and financial stability of the family, driving them deeper into
poverty. In Ethiopia, a funeral can comprise up to a quarter of annual income (Dercon, 2008)
The funeral insurance provides all the activities related to transporting (escorting mourners to the funeral
chapel, transporting the casket from the service to cemetery), preparing (grooming and keeping the corpse for
viewing, organizing the after-service reception, serving as liaison with clergy or celebrants, etc.) and managing
(interviewing relatives to discuss the style of the funeral tributes to the deceased, producing administrative
documents, etc.) the dead for burial or interment (Ibis World, 2015). Bester (2008) put forward that funeral
insurance cover is of great importance since it eases financial worries, helps with related funeral expenses and it
also gives closure so as to avoid an open-ended sense of loss, thereby affording an official goodbye to one’s
deceased relative. Many households are conscious of being able to provide their loved ones with a funeral and
uphold the dignity of the deceased and the family in the eyes of the community, (Bester, 2008). Research
conducted by Alternative Insurance Company (AIC) in Haiti (Nabeth and Barrau, 2010) showed that Haitians
believe that a dignified funeral is essential to ensure that the soul of the deceased will look after them. Insurance
constitutes an important element of financial inclusion globally. In a study at global level, Allen et al. (2012) find
a direct relationship between higher income and financial inclusion.
Developed countries with above average income per capita and well-developed financial service
industries, have a higher level of funeral insurance cover than developing countries, (Arun et al. 2012). Swiss
report (2013) postulates that developed nations account for roughly eighty-four (84) percent of the total global
insurance premiums, with the African continent only accounting for about two (2) percent. This is not surprising
since according to Browne and Kim (2011), empirical studies identified income as a significant positive

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 Demand Factors Influencing Funeral Insurance Cover in Zimbabwe

determinant of life insurance demand and consumption In addition, insurance premiums represent approximately
eight percent of GDP and USD$3579 per capita in advanced economies, (Swiss report, 2013) as opposed to about
three and half percent of GDP and USD$64 per capita in Africa, (Hansa, 2017).
A study by Odemba (2013) indicates that funeral insurance uptake is currently at 1.3% in Kenya despite
its importance. The growth in the take-up of funeral insurance in the South African market has been astounding.
Data from the FinScope Consumer Survey 2012 reveals that 52% of South Africans report owning at least one
funeral insurance policy. With the exception of South Africa, the percentage population of those with insurance
cover or with provisions to cover funeral expenses remains significantly poor across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The history of funeral insurance in Zimbabwe backdates to year 1902 when Doves Holdings was
established. Doves Holdings became the first professional funeral services establishment in Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia). In the last three decades, quite a number of companies entered the Zimbabwean funeral insurance
market with Nyaradzo Holdings and Moonlight Funeral Assurance Company being the giant market players apart
from Doves Holdings, It is understood that losing a loved one is a traumatic and life changing experience. As
such, funeral insurance companies aim to make the season as bearable for the family as possible to allow them to
honor their friend or family member without unnecessary anguish. Most funeral insurance companies in
Zimbabwe memorialize the life lived by the deceased and give them a befitting and dignified burial, observing
religious and cultural practices and preferences. If there is need for a traditional service, a cremation, assistance
in repatriations or referrals to grief support counseling, funeral insurance companies in Zimbabwe walk with you
every step of the way. The backbone of everything these companies do is their experienced and helpful staff
members who are motivated and equipped to deal with the daily challenges that the funeral environment presents.
This study specifically targets Zimbabwe since despite its significance, the majority of the population
have not made provisions to cover funeral expenses. Studies have been done on different funeral insurance covers
but the uptake is still very low in Zimbabwe. Avert (2017) notes that Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV
prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa at 13.3, percent with 1.3 million people living with HIV in 2017. Despite the
HIV prevalence rate and reduction in average life expectancy, funeral insurance subscription remains poor
regardless of its importance, hence there exists a gap that this study seeks to fill.
Other studies on this topic yielded interesting findings and the authors give them credit. However, the
current study is relevant since most of the studies done in Africa on this subject matter were in countries other
than Zimbabwe. The study by Mutasa (2015) ignores important independent variables like marital status, whether
one is a mobile money user or not, gender and whether one is the head of the family or not. These are all included
in the current study.
The rest of this paper is arranged as follows: Section two presents Literature Review;
Section three describes the data used; Section four outlines the research methods used; Section
five reports, analyses and discusses the results; and Section six concludes the research.

II. Literature Review

The poor growth in funeral insurance industry can be explained by the customer perceived value theory.
Customer value perceptions steer purchase behaviour and refer to the value that customers perceive they receive
or experience by using the service (Bettman et al., 1998). According to Bester (2008), customers may view the
value of an offering differently based on their personal attributes, needs, preferences as well as financial resources.
Acquisition of value considers the net gains associated with the benefits and the money given up by acquiring and
using a product or service. Total customer benefit is the perceived monetary value of the bundle of economic,
functional and psychological benefits customers expect from a given market offering because of the products,
services, personnel, and image involved. Total customer cost is the perceived bundle of costs customers expect to
incur in evaluating, obtaining, using, and disposing of the given market offering, including monetary, time, energy,
and psychological costs (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010).
The insurance industry forms an important part of a nation’s financial sector, whose absence would result
in devastating consequences. They are crucial for both business setups and individuals as they indemnify losses
and put them in the equivalent position as they were before the loss. Households and organizations the world
over have come to accept that risk is inevitable in every sphere of life. Lewis (1989) argues that people’s need for
funeral insurance is largely dependent on their age. He cites that as individuals become older and more risk averse
their demand for funeral insurance, at a reasonable price, is expected to increase. Mutasa (2015) put forward that
in establishing the demand factors for funeral insurance, an individual’s income and their preference for
consumption or saving, which is driven by the short-term and long-term interest rates, and the expected lifetime
of the insured individual (life expectancy), influence funeral insurance consumption. This study is in support of
both the theoretical and empirical studies by other researchers although a gap still exists on this field.
The funeral insurance industry can be likened to other service sectors (banking, lodging, restauration,
etc.). In fact, funeral services are immaterial in nature hence they cannot be touched, meaning families cannot
hold or touch the delivered experience. The services are also perishable meaning the proceeding of funeral services
is expected to take place in a defined period of time. Funerals are of great cultural importance in Sub-Saharan

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 Demand Factors Influencing Funeral Insurance Cover in Zimbabwe

Africa. Traditional belief holds that the spirits of the dead can influence the living and must be treated with respect.
Relatives will travel from far to attend, and the cost of catering for them for several days can be high, (Roth,
2001). There is an associated sense of shame if the family of the deceased cannot finance the funeral. Case et al.
(2013) deem the importance of funerals to be ahead of births, graduations and weddings in traditional family and
community life.
Funeral insurance service is considered as a separate type of service to which consumers do not want to
be attracted, thus they generally tend to avoid lots of advertising stimuli related to this industry or express a strong
reluctance to subscribe to them, (Badger, 2008). Case (2013) describes death as an unwanted service for reasons
that include delicacy, decency, morality and even fear, death tend to elicit reactions of aversion, pain or disgust
from customers. The industry is much constrained by customers’ avoidance and this may explain why very little
is known about the “ins and outs” of the funeral business. Schwartz et al. (1986) describes funeral services as
“unsought” services. These services are also confronted with negative demand, which means no one goes to
funeral homes unless there is a death
A study by Odemba (2013) on factors affecting the successful uptake of life insurance targeted a sample
size of 39 agent respondents from which 36 filled in and returned the questionnaires making a response rate of
92.3%. The study noted that most customers prefer to pay their premiums through mobile money because of the
convenience that comes with mobile money. The study also revealed that high cost of premiums and inefficiency
in service delivery are the major factors hindering the uptake of funeral insurance in Kenya. Other major factors
affecting consumption of funeral insurance include poor customer service, the complicated nature of policies,
poor sales agents’ integrity and lack of disposable income for most Kenyans.
Manik (2017) carried out a research on the awareness of life insurance among hawkers in Dhaka City,
India. It was concluded that socio-demographic and knowledge related issues are very important for the awareness
and uptake of insurance among the target population in India. The demographic issues are gender, income and
business type. Knowledge related issues are the knowledge about insurance policies as well as knowledge about
financial security. The results showed that there is a moderate correlation among the demographic variables and
a strong correlation among the knowledge related issues.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) Annual Report (2012-13) on
awareness of funeral insurance among sample customers and found out that , funeral insurance penetration in
India which is the major indicator of growth of insurance in the country was just 3.17 % compared to Japan 9.2%,
Taiwan 15.0% S. Korea 6.9%. One of the important reasons for low penetration was unawareness of the Indian
people about need of insurance in their life. The research found that majority of the Indian population is either
uninsured or under-insured. Buying an insurance policy is not a subject of preference on the 'agenda' of most of
the Indian people. Those who take out an insurance policy give priority for tax exemption and saving rather than
risk cover.

III. Methodology
In the study, a logistic regression (logit model) was estimated in order to explore the determinants of
demand for funeral insurance policy uptake by an individual. Data from Finscope Survey 2014 was used for the
analysis. A Linear Probability Model was used for robustness check in the study.

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics

Characteristics of Individuals Frequency % Mean Std Dev.
Total number of respondents 4000 100
Funeral Cover 0.25425 0.4354932
Yes 1,017 25.43
No 2,983 74.58
Location 0.346 0.4757527
Urban 1 384 35
Rural 2 616 65
Gender 0.42475 0.4943668
Male 1 699 42
Female 2 301 58
Marital status 0.65075 0.4151404
Married 2 603 65
Not married 1 597 35
Level of Education 2.94825 0.9671485
None to Early Child Development 178 4
Grade 1-7 1375 35
Form 1-6 2087 52
Dip/Cert after Primary 37 1
Dip/Cert after secondary 214 5
Graduate/Post Graduate 109 3

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Average (years) 40.1025

18-25 785 20
26-35 1092 27
36-45 860 21.5
46-55 512 12.8
56-65 400 10
66-75 227 5.6
76-85 124 3.1
Employment History 0.94075 0.2361215
With History of employment 3763 94
No history of employment 237 6
Level of income($) 0.051231
No income 262 6.55
1-100 2211 55.28
101-200 480 12
201-300 285 7.15
301-400 158 3.95
401-500 153 4
501-1000 110 3
1001-2000 30 0.75
2001-3000 5 0.12
3001-4000 4 0.1
4001 and above 2 0.05
Refused/Don’t know 282 7.05
Health status 1.65075 0.8178885
Good 2139
Satisfactory 1260
Not satisfactory 460
Poor 141
Death 0.10325 0.3043232
Yes 413 10.32
No 3,587 89.67
Financial advice 0.05175 0.2215496
Yes 207
No 3793
Health Facilities 2.0715 1.367792
Formal 3 888
Other 112
Social media 0.2305571 0.4212475
Using social media 836
No 1105
No access 1685
Salaried 0.1775 0.3821391
Receiving salary 3290
Not receiving salary 710
Medical aid 0.1615599 0.3681198
Yes 406
No 2107
Head 0.5785 0.493861
Yes 2,314 57.85
No 1,686 42.15
Mobile user 0.46825 0.4990533
Yes 1,873 46.83
No 2,127 53.17
Internet 0.12275 0.328191
Yes 491 12.28
No 3,509 87.72

Source: FinScope Household Survey (2014)

3.1 Logistic Regression Model

In the study, the logistic regression models take as the dependent variable, funeral insurance indicator
(Y), whether an individual has a funeral insurance cover or not (1 if the person has medical aid and 0 if not). In a
binary response model, interest lies primarily in the response probability:
Y= b0 +b1X1 +b2X2 +……+ bpXp

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 Demand Factors Influencing Funeral Insurance Cover in Zimbabwe

Where:
Y is the expected value of the dependent variable
b0 is the value of Y when all of the independent variables (X1 through Xp) are equal to zero (constant)
X1 through Xp are p distinct independent variables
b1 through bp are the estimated regression coefficients. Each regression coefficient represents a change
in Y relative to a one unit change in the respective independent variable.

3.2 Linear Probability Model

The Linear Probability Model (LPM) is used largely to enable us to directly obtain coefficient estimates
rather than the estimation of scaled coefficients that are obtained with the logit model, which then need to be
transformed. Since the focus of this study is on factors affecting the decision to have a funeral policy, this should
not be a problem, as both the LPM and the logit model generally produce similar coefficient estimates at the mean
(Wooldridge, 2009). To address a potential challenge with the LPM, which is heteroskedasticity (which
invalidates statistical inference), the standard errors in our models are robust to heteroskedasticity. To avoid the
LPM limitations we then consider a class of binary response models of the form;
P(BA = 1|x) = G(b0 + b1x1 + · · · + bkxk)
where G is a function taking on values strictly between zero and one: 0 < G(z)< 1 for all real numbers z.
The logit model is used in the vast majority of studies and it is a matter of preference (Wooldridge,
2009:575). In this study, logit models are estimated alongside LPM for robustness check.

3.3 Variables Included in the Model

Below are the variables included in the model in accordance with the literature and availability of
FinScope data. The variables were included in the logit and LP models and the reasons for using them.

Employment History (Employment)

One’s employment history is of significance as there is a higher likelihood of one having funeral policy
cover if been formally employed unlike one who has never been formally employed (Wolde, 2016). According to
Ejigu (2016), a person who has been formally employed is likely to be insured as there is a tendency for consumers
to continue subscribing even after formal employment. In the model, this variable was taken as a dummy variable
for those who had been employed before and expected to be positively contribute to having funeral policy cover.

Current Employment (Salaried)

Current employment status is an important determinant of funeral insurance demand (Mutasa, 2015). In
Namibia, formally employed people were likely to have funeral insurance cover (Gustafsson et al., 2010). The
variable is likely to have positive correlation with having medical insurance/not having.

Educational Level
As the level of education rises, the likelihood of having medical insurance tends to increase. Uninsured
people are usually found in disadvantaged communities with low standards of education. A study by Schlag (2003)
had shown that individuals with only primary education are more likely not to be insured compared to tertiary
graduates. The more one is educated the more likely s/he is insured.

Marital Status (Marital)

Martinez et al. (2013) postulates that marital status is a basic variable related to access and use of
financial services. Married people have a high probability of being insured and if one is single, there is less
perceived need for funeral insurance cover. Cercone et al. (2010) found that in Costa Rica, marriage increased the
probability of having funeral insurance. The variable is taken as a dummy variable for married individuals in the
model.

Location
One influential factor determining funeral insurance uptake is the geographical location of people.
Funeral insurance uptake of people living in remote, rural and marginalised areas differ from those in urban areas.
Location is a dummy in the model based on whether one is staying in rural or urban area.

Gender
Uptake of funeral insurance policies differs on whether one is male or female. A study by Allen et al.
(2012) have shown that women have fewer possibilities of accessing formal funeral insurance. Having funeral
insurance cover is likely to differ on gender basis and in the estimated model, gender is included as a dummy
variable.

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 Demand Factors Influencing Funeral Insurance Cover in Zimbabwe

Age
Age is a factor that can influence the level of whether one has a funeral insurance cover or not. An older
adult is more motivated to get funeral policy cover as the risk for illness and death gets greater (Wagner and
Wagner, 2003). In the model, age is included as a categorical variable.

Income
There is a great inequality on the uptake of funeral insurance policies between the rich and the poor in
Africa (World Bank, 2010). The higher the income, the greater the probability of one having funeral insurance
policy.

Health Status
The uptake of funeral insurance policy can be determined by one’s health status. The more one needs
medical attention because of chronic diseases, for example, the greater the probability of one having medical aid
cover. In Namibia, a negative correlation between health status and insured status could suggest cream-skimming,
where insurance firms insure those in better health, which seems not to be the case in Zimbabwe (Gustafsson-
Wright et al., 2010; World Bank, 2010). The variable health status runs from good to poor and is expected to be
positively correlated to the dependent variable.

Financial Advice
Funeral insurance cover is meant to eases financial worries, helps with related funeral expenses and also
give closure so as to avoid an open-ended sense of loss, thereby affording an official goodbye to one’s deceased
relative (Bester, 2008). One can get financial advice and regardless of the source of advice, the decision to get
funeral insurance cover is influenced. The variable financial advice is a dummy variable and its coefficient is
expected to be either positive or negative.

Social Media
The uptake of funeral insurance policy is influenced by one’s access to social media platforms like
WhatsApp, Facebook, and twitter, etc. Funeral insurance companies nowadays advertise their products in social
media platforms, hence, there is a higher probability for one to own a policy if he or she has access to social media.
The variable social media is a dummy variable and its coefficient is expected to be positive

Access to Internet
One’s access to internet influences the chances of having a funeral insurance cover. Internet is being used by
companies to advertise their products, meaning a person who does not have access to internet misses lots of adverts
and there is high probability of that person not having a funeral insurance cover. Access to internet is a dummy
variable in the model.

Death
The study by Schwartz et al. (1986) concluded that no one usually goes to funeral homes unless there is
a death. Case (2013) describes death as an unwanted service for reasons that include delicacy, decency, morality
and even fear. A person who had lost a close relative or a family member in the immediate past is likely to have
a funeral insurance cover than one who had not lost. The variable death is used as a dummy variable in the model.

Mobile User
A person who possesses a mobile phone is more likely to have a funeral cover than one who does not
have. In the estimated model, mobile user is included as a dummy variable.

Empirical Results
LPM Logit
VARIABLES Funeral Funeral

Education 0.0657*** 0.323***

(0.00937) (0.0538)
Employment history -0.0214 -0.0734
(0.0356) (0.232)
Health Status 0.00711* 0.0305*
(0.0110) (0.0657)
Social media -0.0193 -0.110
(0.0120) (0.0700)
Salaried 0.177*** 0.868***
(0.0215) (0.118)

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Internet 0.0206* 0.0846*

(0.0267) (0.150)
Death 0.0352** 0.197**
(0.0256) (0.150)
Married 0.0361 0.229
(0.0299) (0.185)
Income 0.0169*** 0.106***
(0.00324) (0.0199)
Financial advice 0.121*** 0.614***
(0.0331) (0.182)
Mobile user 0.0966*** 0.620***
(0.0173) (0.105)
Age 0.00659*** 0.0389***
(0.000639) (0.00391)
Gender -0.0569*** -0.369***
(0.0185) (0.114)
Location 0.0144 0.0963
(0.0186) (0.108)
Head -0.0378* -0.192*
(0.0202) (0.123)
Constant -0.322*** -4.579***
(0.0636) (0.407)

Observations 4,000 4,000

R-squared 0.170
Standard errors in parentheses
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

The logit results were report and the LPM was done for robustness check. The dependent variable was
whether one had a funeral cover/policy or not.
Education was significant and positively correlated to funeral cover policy. This implies that the more
educated one is the greater the probability of one having a funeral cover.
Employment history was not significant with a negative correlation with funeral cover status. Whether
one was once employed or not has no significant effect on one’s funeral policy status. However, the negative
relationship signifies a relationship that exists but not significant.
Health status was significant at 10% level and positively related to funeral policy status. This shows that
as one’s health complications increase the more likely that individual has a funeral cover. This may be true
considering those with chronic diseases that may want to cover themselves in case of any eventualities.
Social media was found not significant to funeral cover status with negative correlation. This implies
that whether one has access to social media or not has no significant impact on one’s funeral cover status.
Salaried was found significant and positively related to funeral cover status. If one is formally employed s/he is
more likely to have a funeral cover than the one not formally employed.
Internet was found significant and positively correlated to funeral cover status. If one uses internet s/he
is more likely to have a funeral cover than the one who does not use it.
Death was found significant and positively correlated to funeral cover status. If one has lost a close
relative or a family member in the immediate past s/he is likely to have a funeral cover than one who has not lost.
If an unprepared event like losing a family happens one would want to be covered in the funeral if s/e had not
done so. The unfortunate events may compel one to cover against risks.
Marriage was not significant and positively correlated to funeral cover status. This implies that whether
one is married or not has no significant impact on the funeral cover status.
Income was significantly related to funeral cover status with a positive correlation. The higher the income
of an individual the greater the probability of one having a funeral cover.
Financial advice was found to be significant with a positive relationship. If one gets financial advice s/he
is more likely to have a funeral cover than one who does not. Financial advisers may help one to be organised and
hedge against risk.
Mobile user variable was found to be significant with a positive correlation. Those who possess mobile
phones are more likely to have a funeral cover than those who do not have. Some mobile phone operators such as
Econet have funeral cover offered to their subscribers and contribution deducted from their mobile money
accounts (Ecocash) periodically.
The age variable was significant at 1% level and positively related to funeral cover. The older one is the
more likely one has a funeral cover.
Gender was found to be significant and negatively related to funeral cover. Males were less likely to have
a funeral cover than women.

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Location was not significant and positively correlated to funeral cover. Whether one lives in urban areas
or not had no significant impact on funeral cover status of an individual. This may also mean that those in the
rural areas are conscious of the importance of funeral cover arrangements and policies.
Being head of the house was significant at 10% level and negatively related to funeral cover. This implies
that if one is the head of the house s/he is more likely to have a funeral cover than one is not. Being the head one
is motivated or driven by the responsibility call to cover for future funeral expenses.
The following variables were found significant: education, health status, social media, salaried, internet,
death, marital status, income, financial advice, mobile user, age, gender and head. Employment history, social
media, married and location were not significant. But for those not significant they had different signs showing
that there is some relationship.

IV. Discussion
The education level was found significant to influencing an individual’s funeral cover. An educated
person is likely to comprehend the need for a funeral cover and take cover in preparation of the day of death.
Because of some cultural or religious beliefs one may not have a funeral cover but as the level of education
increases chances are higher for one to have such as cover. This result was in line with other studies that found
education having a significant role in influencing uptake of funeral covers, (Mutasa, 2015).
Employment history had no significant relationship with having a funeral cover in Zimbabwe. If one
takes a long period without regular income there are less chances for having a funeral cover. This result
contradicted the research done by Mutasa (2015) who found that employment history had a significant influence
on insurance products uptake.
Health status had a significant relationship with having a funeral cover. As health deteriorates the more
likely one is sensitive to death issues and becomes prepared for any eventuality. The result is in line with other
studies that discovered that health status is influential in determining uptake of funeral assurance covers (Case,
2013, Lewis 1989).
Use of social media was not significant in influencing having funeral cover. The funeral assurance
companies in Zimbabwe are yet to adopt social media platform as a marketing tool. Social media can be used for
brand marketing and attract customers. The results contradict a study by Berg (2017) who found that social media
can be used to promote financial products.
A person who is salaried (formally employed) is more likely to have a funeral cover. The main reason
for this is because of the regular income that one gets allowing periodic payments to the insurance firm. The result
concurred with Mutasa (2015) who found income having an influential role in funeral assurance products.
Internet use was found significant because one is able to search for more information on assurance product or risk
management issues and prompted to buy funeral cover. Some firms can sell products through their websites and
other online platforms and convince one to be covered. This result is consistent with other studies that revealed
that the use of ICT can enhance financial services uptake (Roth, 2001).
If one has experienced death of a close relative s/he is likely to be aware of the consequences of footing
the funeral bills without insurance cover. Such experiences are likely to push one to have a funeral cover. This
result is in line with other studies that found that death of someone close will prompt him/her to have a funeral
cover (Ramsay and Arcila, 2013).
Marital status has no effect on funeral cover status of an individual in Zimbabwe. This contradicted
findings by Ramsay and Arcila (2013) who found that a married person was more likely to have an insurance
cover than the one not married.
Income was significant in relation to having a funeral cover. The higher the income the more disposable
income and the greater the choice of financial products. The result was in line with Mutasa (2015) who discovered
that income was a significant determinant of having an insurance product.
Financial advice was found significant in relation to having a funeral cover. One makes an informed
decision having received expert advice on financial and risk management matters. Since financial advice is
positively linked to having a funeral cover, it is paramount for the government to foster establishment of
professional financial advisory board(s).
If one is a mobile phone user s/he is likely to have a funeral cover. Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile service
provider (Econet Wireless Ltd) had introduced a funeral cover that are linked to subscriber. This has prompted
thousands of subscribers and other beneficiaries to have funeral covers. This result is in line with other studies
that found that a mobile phone user was more likely to have a funeral assurance cover (Avert, 2017).
Age was significant in influencing funeral cover status. The older one is the greater the responsibilities
and maturity in covering future eventualities. This was consistent with other studies that found that age was a
determinant of funeral cover, (Mutasa, 2015).
Gender was found significant in determining funeral cover. Being a man or a woman was a determining
factor in influencing having a funeral cover. This is not in tandem with other studies that revealed that being a
woman or a man influences funeral cover status (Tyson 2015).

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 Demand Factors Influencing Funeral Insurance Cover in Zimbabwe

Location was found insignificant in influencing having a funeral cover. Whether one is in the rural or
urban did not have an effect on one’s funeral cover status. This result was in contradiction to other findings that
found those in the rural areas less likely to have financial products (Odemba, 2013).
Being the head of the household was significant in relation to having insurance. The head of the
household is likely to be having dependencies that prompt him/her to have a funeral cover.

V. Conclusion
Though it may not be pleasant, funerals are unfortunate and unfavourable part of life. Funeral policies
for oneself and loved ones, is important for reducing financial stress during bereavement periods. The current
study found that education, health status, salaried (formal employment), internet, death, income, financial advice,
mobile user, age, gender being head of the household were significant in determining funeral cover status. It is
important for the government to craft policies to enhance uptake of funeral assurance in Zimbabwe. The use of
awareness programmes, brand awareness and financial literacy education is important to improve the uptake of
funeral assurance covers. The use of internet and social media to market brand and promote products will go a
long way in improving levels of people with funeral cover in the country.
The establishment of financial advisory on different platforms and by financial institutions can help
people manage risks. Funeral insurance firms can partner with other financial services providers and other mobile
services providers to increase their market. Partnering some religious sects and cultural groups would also improve
percentage of people with funeral cover in the country.
There is need to look at the effects of religion and cultural beliefs on funeral assurance cover. The data
used for the current study does not provide an individual’s religion and cultural beliefs.

Acknowledgements
The researchers would want to thank Finmark Trust for the permission to use their survey data. Colleagues who
assisted with valuable comments are also commended.

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