Season 15 Episode 9

Eugene Strauss on taking AVBOB beyond funeral insurance

08 October 2026 · 33:15 min

AVBOB is expanding beyond funeral insurance as it looks to play a much bigger role in the financial lives of millions of South Africans.

Eugene Strauss, CEO of AVBOB Group, explains his vision for evolving the 108-year-old mutual while preserving the trust, member focus, and community presence… that made it successful.

Strauss discusses opportunities in life insurance, investments, affordable lending, savings products, and member rewards. He explains why AVBOB’s mutual structure creates an opportunity to return more value to members, including its recent R300 million rewards allocation.

The conversation also explores AVBOB’s major digital transformation programme and how technology could help the group serve lower-income and rural communities more efficiently without replacing human interaction. Strauss also reflects on lessons from AVBOB’s recent cyber incident, rebuilding trust, and why stronger action against cybercrime is needed.

0:00 Intro
1:16 Strauss's vision for AVBOB
5:07 The advantage of being a mutual
7:35 Expanding beyond funeral insurance
12:40 Scaling without losing member trust
15:03 AVBOB's digital transformation
19:20 Lessons from the cyber incident
25:46 Leadership, culture and AVBOB's future

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