An unknown beneficiary was listed on Matthew Kanniah’s Discovery life insurance policy.

• A Discovery Life client was shocked to find that someone he didn’t know was listed as the beneficiary of his policy, rather than his mother.
• He took to social media after the issue was not resolved. 
• Discovery apologised and said it would have caught the issue before any payout, while it has also changed its system.
• For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.

A year after taking out a life insurance policy with Discovery, Matthew Kanniah was shocked to find a name he didn’t recognise listed as the beneficiary of the potential payout.

This week, Kanniah, a South African automotive and lifestyle content creator, chronicled his experience to his sizeable following on social media. 

He said he took out a life insurance policy with Discovery shortly after the restrictions put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic lifted in 2022. He attempted to register his mother as the beneficiary.

He was under the impression that, should anything happen to him, his mother would receive a lump sum payment of “millions”.

But, when he checked his Discovery app over a year after taking out the policy, he realised that someone else was listed as the beneficiary. He has no idea who this other person is.

He contacted Discovery when he realised his mother was not the listed beneficiary, but says he didn’t receive assistance. Only after contacting the company again in December 2023, he was given forms to fill in.

In response to questions from News24, Discovery Life said that the error arose because there was a match in the particulars provided by Kanniah for his mother and another person.

“When signing up for the policy, Mr Kanniah was not able to provide his mother’s full ID number, and her date of birth was provided as an identifier, which contributed to the mismatching of beneficiaries’ names,” it told News24.

Kanniah said he was frustrated that the incorrect particulars still reflected on his app, even though he had submitted forms.

He decided to go public with the matter in a post on X.

“The only way I can get something done is if I post about it, because I followed the process, I emailed, I gave reference numbers.”

His posts on the matter on X garnered a large audience.

He said that he also filed a complaint with the insurance ombud owing to the mismanagement that had occurred following the error.

After going public with the issue, he explained that it had now been resolved, but he still wants proper answers from Discovery.

He said:

He said it was highly unlikely that a random person would decline millions of rands in compensation if contacted, even if they knew that they were not the intended beneficiary. Discovery Life said that they had the necessary checks in place to ensure that the error would not have resulted in any erroneous payments.

It also apologised for the inconvenience caused to Kanniah and said that the company had changed its system to require the ID number of benefactors to be provided.

“We commend Mr Kanniah for checking this information and we recommend that all clients regularly review their information as their circumstances might have changed. Clients can check the details of their beneficiaries through their annual policy schedule or on the Discovery app,” the statement said.