Discovery Gap Cover

Why invest with Discovery?

In 1992, Discovery revolutionised medical aid through a single, profound insight: If people lived healthier lives, it would change insurance for good. It would also change society. They introduced rewards for healthy behaviour choices and grew into a global organisation.

Discovery Invest brings the same philosophy: They encourage you to and reward you for investing longer, investing more, living well and withdrawing wisely.

A solid investment company that helps you achieve your investment goals

Discovery offers easy access to many diverse investments and a wide choice of investment managers through one contact point. Whether you are just starting out in investments or you are a seasoned investor, they have an investment plan for you. In just 10 years, they became one of the fastest-growing unit trust companies in South Africa, with over 280 000 clients and R92 billion in assets under management. Their funds are recognised as top performers in their sectors. Source: Investec Asset Management, Q2 2019, Internal finance data as at end June 2019.


 

A wide range of Investment plans

Discovery has a diverse range of investment plans that can help you invest towards your retirement and other short term or medium-term goals. With investment opportunities extended across local and offshore investments, no matter what you are saving for, they can help you get there.

 

Discovery’s Retirement Plans

(Lump sum and Recurring) – get up to 20% boost to your retirement capital when you invest in a lump-sum Retirement Annuity.

Retirement Funds: Because employees may be living longer, encouraging the right retirement savings behaviours can dramatically reduce their retirement savings gap. That’s why Discovery Retirement Funds* drive positive savings behaviour by motivating
employees to save more, save for longer, and manage their finances. Discovery is then able to reward their behaviour by adding boosts to their savings, further helping them to close their retirement savings gap. Discovery’s solutions can be tailored to the unique needs of a business. The employer can choose between a standard or customised package and employees make their own choices about retirement contributions and investment
portfolios.

(Retirement annuity) – allows you to convert your unused life cover into tax-free cash payments in retirement.

Get up to a 20% boost on your investment when you invest in Discovery Invest Preserver Plans.

(Fixed and Living Annuities) – get up to a 50% extra retirement income, for life, when investing in a living annuity plan.

Discretionary Plans

(Lump sum and Recurring) – get up to a 20% boost on your initial lump-sum investment.

(Lump sum and Recurring) – get up to a 100% fee discount.

Lump-sum and Recurring

Get a guaranteed investment value at the end of your five-year investment term.

Gives you a guaranteed regular income on your investment for five years.


Discovery Invest International

With the latest innovations, Discovery Invest is expanding their local shared-value investment platform globally by creating the first international shared-value offering with unique benefits and associations with some of the largest and strongest investment managers in the world. They have also paired this with efficient structuring and a seamless digital investing experience to allow you to navigate the world of global investing with ease. Invest International is the country’s first international shared-value investment offering, designed to give clients access to the world’s best investment opportunities.


International Plans

(Lump-sum) – the benefit of investing at a lower exchange rate compared to the current market.

Invest in monthly USD with ease.

Allows you to invest for retirement in USD and convert your unused Dollar Life cover into tax-free cash payments in retirement.


A wide choice of funds to invest in

Once you have chosen which investment plan you want to invest a regular or a lump-sum contribution into, you must decide in which funds to invest your money. Discovery Invest gives you the freedom to choose from a range of over 200-unit trust funds managed by leading local and international fund managers through a single-entry point. This means you can invest in their investment plans and choose investment funds that are managed by leading investment managers.

Powerful behavioural incentives

Discovery boosts the retirement savings employees transfer into the Fund by up to 15% to encourage them to stay invested and consolidate their savings when they join or leave the Fund. Discovery also boosts contributions by up to 15%, including additional voluntary contributions that employees make to the Fund each month. The boost is relatedto employees’ engagement in the various Vitality programmes and meeting their Active Rewards goals.


Discovery Invest FAQ’s

Below are some of the frequently asked questions we receive about the Discovery Invest options. If you need to know more about investing or have any questions that you don’t see listed below, please speak to one of our consultants.

You can download your tax certificate on your Discovery Investment by logging into the Discovery website with your personal details.

Go to the “Investment tab” and click on “Tax Certificate” in the dropdown. You can download your certificate by clicking on the three dots under action and selecting download.

Please see the steps below:

  1. Login to the Discovery Website.
  2. Click on the portfolio tab in the top left corner – select “Update Your Details”.
  3. Enter the OTP received by SMS.
  4. Scroll down to “Invest contract”
  5. Click on the “click here”.
  6. At each detail’s section there is an icon next to the heading – select the icon at the section you wish to change.
  7. Select your notification type and request the OTP.
  8. Update your details.
  9. You will receive an email confirming the changes made.
All investment products are affected by market movements. Investment managers invest client money into funds. These funds are managed by the investment managers according to their mandate (risk and return objectives).

Funds perform according to the asset classes they are invested namely; Stocks, Bonds, Cash, Commodities, etc. When the asset classes in the fund perform well the fund tends to gain on your initial investment, when asset classes performance decline the fund’s performance tends to reduce as well. But not to warry asset managers are professional investors and protect the fund performance by buying and selling the assets accordingly to protect investors against a market decline.

We allocate our client’s investments according to their risk profiles and need to analyse your investment before commenting on the performance.

Please email us on invest@pvb.co.za for more information.

You can nominate beneficiaries on your Discovery Invest policy. This allows Discovery Invest to pay the investment value directly to your beneficiaries.

If your beneficiaries are younger than 18 years old the investment value will be paid into your estate. Please contact us to help you set up your estate accordingly invest@pvb.co.za

The boosters are paid on a later date of 10 years since you took out the policy of age 65.

You have to be invested in the policy to this date to receive the benefit.

Your booster benefit moves with your selected investment portfolio since the inception date. Although the booster benefit is not shown as part of your investment the booster amount will perform as the rest of your investment in the market.
This benefit helps you create additional value in retirement by linking your Discovery Life policy with your recurring Retirement Annuity. As a result, at age 65 a portion of your Discovery Life policy gets paid towards your LPO benefit. An additional annual income gets paid to you from this benefit for the whole of life. This means that at retirement your retirement money can be boosted by an additional percentage. The additional boost is tax-free and paid annually. This makes Discovery Invest’s DRO policy like no other retirement annuity in the market.
In order to receive the annual payouts from your LPO benefit, you need to keep your Discovery Life Policy and invest your retirement money in a Discovery Living Annuity.
Your LPO benefit is paid in annual tax-free payments. The portion paid to you depends on the benefit amount at retirement stage as well as the type of DRO you have.

If you would like to know what LPO payment will be available to you on current LPO figures please contact us on invest@pvb.co.za

The boost to your retirement income will depend on:

  • How much income you withdraw (annual retirement income %)
  • Your percentage fund allocation in Discovery Qualifying Funds.
  • Your Vitality status
  • Your Vitality health goals achieved from the Vitality Active Rewards Programme

Discovery Invest

Discovery Invest

*If you have a drawdown of 2.75% on Diamond Vitality status and do at least 4 health goals your income boost can be boosted by 50%.

*The boosted income you can receive per year is capped at R100 000.

Living Annuity products are not governed by regulation 28  and therefore you can invest in any available investment funds on the Discovery Invest platform. Please note to receive the additional boost on your investment you need to be invested in Discovery Qualifying Funds (DQF). Purple Investment clients, investment value more than R3.5mil, only have to invest 50% of their investment in DQF to qualify for the income boost up to 50%.

According to current legislation (June 2020) unfortunately not. Normal living annuity lumpsum withdrawal restrictions apply. You will only be able to withdraw the lump sum if it is less than R125,000

If you decide to emigrate you need a South African bank account where your annual income annuity can pay into. Please consult an emigration specialist on the process of financial emigration.

According to current legislation (June 2020) governed by the Pension act, you will only be able to access retirement money at age 55 onwards.

Retirement money is governed by the pension act through regulation 28. Regulation 28 sets limits on the following asset class exposures; 100% cash, 100% debt, 75% equity, 25% property, 10% commodities, 30% foreign assets.

According to current legislation (June 2020), you will be able to withdraw the investment as a lump sum, but you will pay tax on it. Please consult an emigration specialist on the process of financial emigration.

  • Retirement funds – retirement annuities, pension funds and provident funds. Tax-deductible contributions to retirement funds are capped at 27.5% of taxable income or a rand amount of R350 000 per year, whichever is the lower. If you are 75 and older, you don’t pay tax on the first R135 300 earned per year.
  • Endowment policies are taxed at a flat 30% within the policy. This makes it a very attractive investment for clients that have a marginal tax rate higher than 30%.
  • Flexible investments are currently taxed only on capital gains when they sell their units.
  • Tax Free investments the money you invest can grow tax free. This means you pay no income tax, no tax on dividends, and no capital gains tax.

Premium holidays are provided on application only. Clients currently have 6 months premium holiday available to them in their policy’s lifetime. If you wish to apply for a premium holiday, please contact us on invest@pvb.co.za for advice and the appropriate letter.

Your policy will only be cancelled (made paid-up) if you miss 3 premiums. Once you missed a premium you have the option to pay in the premium at the next debit order date, therefore Discovery will double debit you, or opt for a forced debit where Discovery will debit you on the same day.

To increase your current contribution please contact us for the change of contribution form. Contribution changes will be in effect at your next debit order date. Keep in mind that your contribution will increase at the anniversary as well according to your policy.

Ready to Talk

If you are looking for a leading investment opportunity – then look no further! At PvB & Associates, we offer multiple Discovery Invest options for you and your family. Get in touch with us today.