Our unique business model
PPS Mutual is a mutual insurer ultimately owned by the Professional Provident Society Trust (PPS Trust) for the benefit of PPS Mutual's members. To become a member, your client must meet the eligibility criteria applied by PPS Mutual at the time they choose to join. This requires that your client is also a life insured under a PPS Mutual Professionals’ Choice policy.
The Profit Share Benefit is a means by which members of PPS Mutual can share in the financial success of PPS Mutual’s business. The Profit Share Benefit is delivered to members through the Multiple Life Policy held by the PPS Trust for the benefit of members. Your client will become a life insured under the Multiple Life Policy, when they become a member of PPS Mutual.
Financial backing comes from the strength and experience of the PPS Group in South Africa – a long-established and successful mutual organisation serving professionals for over 80 years.
PPS Mutual aims to operate profitably. But unlike typical insurers, we won’t return profits to external shareholders. Instead, PPS Mutual’s unique Profit Share Benefit provides a means by which members of PPS Mutual can share in the financial success of PPS Mutual’s business.
The PPS South Africa vision
The PPS Group in South Africa (PPS SA Group) has been protecting and serving South African professionals for over 80 years – offering a broad range of life insurance, general insurance, medical indemnity, medical aid, and investment products.
PPS SA Group exists solely for the benefit of its members and its mutual model allows PPS to make decisions that are in the best interests of its members. For example, during the Covid pandemic, PPS SA Group expanded sickness benefits under its Income Protection products to pay claims to members who were unable to work due to isolation, rather than illness. PPS SA Group’s entry into the medical indemnity market was a response to concerns from members around the accessibility and cost of medical indemnity insurance. And PPS SA Group invests in the next generation of professionals through a range of grassroots initiatives, such as bursary scholarships, mentorship programmes and its recent investment into the Old Mutual Education Impact Fund.
In recent years, PPS SA Group has expanded its unique mutual model internationally – starting with Namibia, Australia and now New Zealand. PPS SA Group does not have a shareholding in PPS Mutual but earns a fixed return on debt funding provided to establish the NZ business. This arrangement provides a pathway, over time as the debt funding is paid down, for PPS Mutual to become a mature and financially self-sustaining member-owned organisation that upholds the principles of mutuality on which PPS Mutual was established. It prioritises the long-term interests and security of New Zealand members, while offering a fair return to PPS SA Group and its members.
The PPS Mutual Operating Model
PPS Mutual operates as an independent business. We have a local management team and Board (with a majority of independent directors and one director based in South Africa), New Zealand-based operations team, our own technology platform, and products designed by the New Zealand team for the local professional market.
Every decision we make reflects a deep understanding of the local market and what’s best for our New Zealand members.
While we are operationally independent, we benefit from being part of the PPS global franchise, which gives us access to financial resources, international capability, and decades of intellectual property developed by the PPS SA Group.
At the same time, the PPS SA Group recognises the dynamic nature of the New Zealand market and the potential for local innovation to benefit PPS members abroad.
The PPS SA Group is deeply invested in our success and is passionate about seeing the New Zealand business thrive.