Life insurance members of the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) settled 94.1% of death claims under individual life, credit life, funeral, and universal life policies in 2025, paying beneficiaries ZAR44.2bn ($2.7bn) in benefits. In 2024, 95.6% of death claims were paid to a value of ZAR39.5bn.
Mr Gareth Friedlander, a member of the ASISA Life and Risk Board Committee, said that for the past five years, the average claims payout rate for life and funeral policies remained steady between 94% and 96%.
|
ASISA Claims Payout Statistics: 2024 & 2025
|
|
Type of policy
|
Proportion of claims paid
|
Number of claims paid
|
Value of claims paid (ZAR)
|
|
|
2024
|
2025
|
2024
|
2025
|
2024
|
2025
|
|
Life Insurance
|
97.3%
|
96.0%
|
276 108
|
254 377
|
28.9bn
|
29.3bn
|
|
Credit Life
|
88.1%
|
93.1%
|
21 107
|
149 958*
|
1.3bn
|
2.9bn
|
|
Funeral
|
94.7%
|
93.2%
|
530 045
|
579 296
|
7.3bn
|
9.6bn
|
|
Combined (Universal Life)
|
99.9%
|
99.9%
|
46 565
|
33 163
|
2bn
|
2.3bn
|
|
Total
|
95.6%
|
94.1%
|
873 825
|
1 016 794
|
39.5bn
|
44.2bn
|
|
Source: ASISA
*Life companies included “cell captive insurance” numbers in their credit life statistics for the first time in 2025. The cell captive insurance structure is commonly used by retailers who offer credit life insurance under an insurance company's licence when selling items such as furniture or appliances on credit.
|
Life insurance policies (including universal policies)
Mr Friedlander explained that the highest average claims payout percentage is typically achieved for life insurance policies (including the old universal life policies), because they require some form of risk screening, like health assessments and lifestyle questions, before the applicant’s life is insured.
In 2025, 96% of claims against life policies were paid and 99.9% of universal life policies. When a claim against a life insurance is declined, it is most often due to material non-disclosure.
Funeral insurance policies
Funeral insurance policies are designed to pay out quickly and without hassle when an insured family member dies, and they typically do not require blood tests or medical examinations. Funeral policies are also restricted in terms of the maximum cover they can provide.
Since there are no underwriting requirements for funeral insurance, it is often tempting for people to buy funeral cover only once they have developed a serious illness and are expecting to die as a result. To prevent this, funeral cover usually imposes a waiting period of six months for deaths due to natural causes. The main reasons for declining claims against funeral policies are waiting periods, fraud and unpaid premiums.
The payout rate for funeral policies tends to be slightly lower than for life policies and averaged 93.2% in 2025.
Credit life policies
Credit life policies are designed to cover loans should the policyholder die before the debt has been settled, for example, a home loan or vehicle finance. The payout by a credit life insurance policy decreases as the outstanding loan amount decreases, and once the debt has been repaid, the cover ends. Since premiums are worked into the monthly loan repayment, a default on the repayment also means that no premiums are paid to the life insurer, and the cover therefore lapses.
Mr Friedlander said that claims against credit life policies are most commonly declined because the cover lapsed due to non-payment of premiums or the outstanding loan balance had been settled. The average claims payout rate for credit life policies was 93.1% in 2025.