Sign in
  • Home
  • News
    • Defence
    • Foreign
    • Pictures
    • Africa
  • Politics
  • Business
    • Aviation
    • Capital Market
    • Coronavirus
    • Energy
    • Finance and Banking
    • Industry
    • Insurance
    • IT & Tel
    • Property
    • Transport
    • Aviation
    • Industry
    • Energy
  • Sports
    • Ronaldo
  • Entertainment
    • Scoop
  • Features
    • Special Contribution
    • Art
    • Tourism
    • Opinion
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
1.8 C
New York
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
  • Sign in / Join
  • Home
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Infotrust News
  • Home
  • News
    • AllDefenceForeignPictures
      News

      DR Congo Accuses Rwandan Hutu Rebels Of Killing Italian Envoy

      News

      Kidnapped Kagara Students, Teachers Regain Freedom

      News

      Nigerians Have Shed Enough Blood, Says Buhari

      News

      ‘There’s No Better Successor For Buhari Than Tinubu’

    • Africa
  • Politics
    • Politics

      Imo: I Have The Strongest Political Structure – Okorocha To Uzodinma…

      News

      ‘There’s No Better Successor For Buhari Than Tinubu’

      Headlines

      Omisore Abandon SDP, Joins APC

      Headlines

      Reps’ Spokesman: Nigerian Lawmakers Among World’s Poorest… We Are Suffering

      APC

      Oshiomhole Declares APC Revalidation Exercise Unconstitutional, Double Registration

  • Business
    • AllAviationCapital MarketCoronavirusEnergyFinance and BankingIndustryInsuranceIT & TelPropertyTransport
      Business

      Banks Turning Female Marketers To Sexual Slaves – Senator

      Business

      Why Petrol Price’ll Continue To Increase – Retailers

      Business

       Banking Sector Lost N5bn To Fraud In Nine Months, Says NIBSS

      Business

      Court Orders KPMG To Audit Zenith Bank, Stallion Group Account Over…

    • Aviation
    • Industry
    • Energy
  • Sports
    • AllRonaldo
      News

      COVID-19 Kills Ronaldinho’s Mother

      Headlines

      BREAKING: NPFL: Bus Carrying Wikki Tourists Players Bursts Into Flames

      Headlines

      Williams Breaks Down In Tears After Australian Open Semi-final Defeat

      Sports

      Champions League: Barcelona’s Squad To Face PSG Confirmed

  • Entertainment
    • AllScoop
      Entertainment

      Headies: Omah Lay Wins Next Rated As Fireboy Grabs 4 Awards…

      Entertainment

      Paternity Scandal: Shina Peter Vows To Take Care Of Funmi Martins’…

      Entertainment

      Court Orders DNA Test For Nollywood Actress, Odusanya’s Daughter

      Entertainment

      My Mum Was Older Than Dad — Iyabo Ojo

  • Features
    • AllSpecial Contribution
      Features

      Serving Humanity Is My Passion-Sanusi, CEO, Ilaji Hotels and Resort

      Features

      Seven Ways To Detect Hidden Camera In A Hotel Room

      Features

      How Kidnapped Lady Tricked, Lured Her Captors Into Police Net

      Auwalu Daudawa
      Features

      Mastermind Of Kankara Boys’ Kidnap Gives Reasons For Surrender

    • Art
      • Art

        New Afrika Shrine Karnival To Hold On Jan 17th & 18th

        Art

        Trump’s Reaction To A Nigerian Artist Painting

        Art

        A Peek Into The World Of Afro-beat: Edaoto

        Africa

        Belgian Festival Draws Criticism Over Blackface ‘Savage’ Character

        Art

        Ekiti Gov., Kayode Fayemi Kicks-Off Festivals Of Arts And Culture

    • Tourism
      • Features

        And Araba Transforms To Leopard

        Headlines

        Ekiti Tourism: 2000 Tourism Entrepreneurs, Artisans To Benefit From Sterling Bank…

        Africa

        Africa Travel Week Unveils 2021 Roadmap To Reignite Travel And Tourism…

        Features

        Five Destinations Open For South African Travellers

        Africa

        Will Stolen African Artefacts Ever Find Their Way Back Home?

    • Opinion
      • Opinion

        Dissecting  Chief Of The Naval Staff Agenda For Maritime Security 

        Opinion

        Now PMB Has Replaced Service Chiefs

        Headlines

        The National Question And The Quest For Restructuring In Nigeria

        Opinion

        Reinvigorating Nigeria-America Relations Under President Joe Biden

        Opinion

        Facing 2021: Notes To The Nigerian Left

Home Africa Life Insurance Firms Forced To Make Increased Payouts Due To Covid-19 Deaths
  • Africa
  • Business
  • Insurance
  • News

Life Insurance Firms Forced To Make Increased Payouts Due To Covid-19 Deaths

By
Mwangi Githahu
-
January 27, 2021
Share on Facebook
Tweet on Twitter

With a national death toll of over 41000 since March last year, life insurance companies in South Africa have paid out hundreds of millions of rand in claims from clients who have died from Covid-19.

While experts from the industry say that claims for fatalities were initially relatively low with most claims being for sickness and income protection, claims for death and funeral benefits have since increased to make up the majority. These trends reflect the acceleration of the pandemic.

Product Actuary at Sanlam Petrie Marx said: “Between March and August 2020, Sanlam Individual Life paid out R144 million in death and funeral claims.

“In August 2020 alone, death and funeral claims related to Coronavirus were double the amount paid out for the period March to July,” said Marx.

Similarly, CEO of FNB Life, Lee Bromfield, said: “FNB Life saw a significant spike in death and retrenchment claims during the hard lockdown in 2020.”

Bromfield said: “Due to the closed period, we are unable to provide the latest figures at this stage. However, we can confirm that by June 2020, FNB Life had paid out in excess of R100 million in credit life policies to protect the livelihoods of customers whose income was affected by the pandemic or retrenched.”

The closed period is the time between the completion of a listed company’s financial results and the announcing of these results to the public.

Head of strategic finance at Momentum Metropolitan Cobus Rothman said: “In line with the increase in nationwide reported deaths we have observed an increase in mortality claims during the first and the second waves of infections.

“At our year-end financial results in September 2020, we announced that we have set aside funds to provide for the increase in claims. Deaths of young professional people have been in the minority, with most national deaths in the higher age brackets,” said Rothman.

CEO of Phoenix FSG Clayton Samsodien said: “The bulk of our business is in healthcare and employee benefits, medical schemes in particular. Business has remained stable aside from higher death rates and retrenchments.”

Samsodien said: “The same cannot be said for life and insurance with higher than usual lapse rates. On the medical scheme side, claims ratios were lower due to members postponing electives whereas life and insurance policies are normally the first to be cancelled in challenging financial times and affordability considering pay cuts being experienced.

“Financial service providers (FSPs) that have not implemented prudent financial risk management plans or are dependent on industry sectors of operation or product categories have been negatively impacted. Some of these businesses have had to close their doors whilst others have had to retrench and implement salary cuts. Some of these businesses will not come back after Covid-19,” said Samsodien

Meanwhile with regard to denied or fraudulent claims as a result of Covid-19, deputy ombudsman for Long-Term Insurance Jennifer Preiss said: “We have so far received 245 complaints about Covid-19-related claims declined, of these 108 are about death claims.”

Preiss said: “Not all claims have been valid but this does not mean that the claimants have attempted to scam the insurers. We do not know of attempted insurance-related scams as a result of Covid-19.

“Claimants may not know which events are covered by the policy or the policy terms and conditions that have to be met for a claim to be valid. If consumers have complaints about policies, including about poor service, they can complain to the Ombudsman if they have already complained to their insurer without success. We can be reached via email at [email protected],” said Preiss.

“Our service is free for consumers. We try and settle the complaint in the first instance and if that does not happen we make a decision. Our decisions are binding on insurers but not on complainants. We have a fairness/equity jurisdiction. We can also award compensation for poor service up to a limit of R50000,” said Preiss.

Cape Argus

  • TAGS
  • CEO
  • COVID-19
  • FNB
  • FSG
  • South Africa
SHARE
Facebook
Twitter
Previous articleOne Killed As Gunmen Ambush Plateau Villagers
Next articleFive Destinations Open For South African Travellers
Mwangi Githahu

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

News

DR Congo Accuses Rwandan Hutu Rebels Of Killing Italian Envoy

News

Kidnapped Kagara Students, Teachers Regain Freedom

News

Nigerians Have Shed Enough Blood, Says Buhari

News

‘There’s No Better Successor For Buhari Than Tinubu’

News

COVID-19 Kills Ronaldinho’s Mother

News

Insecurity: I Owe No One Apology For Speaking Truth To Those In Authority – Ortom

News

Fugitive Policemen Who Allegedly Killed UNIZIK Student Re-arrested

News

Schools’ Abduction, Boko Haram’s Plot To Discourage Western Education – Lawmaker

News

Atiku, Saraki React To Military Plane Crash In Abuja Airport

EDITOR PICKS

DR Congo Accuses Rwandan Hutu Rebels Of Killing Italian Envoy

February 22, 2021

Serving Humanity Is My Passion-Sanusi, CEO, Ilaji Hotels and Resort

February 22, 2021

Imo: I Have The Strongest Political Structure – Okorocha To Uzodinma...

February 22, 2021

POPULAR POSTS

Prof Salako replaces embattled Ujah, as workers jubilate over sack of...

July 31, 2016

UK Minister for Africa Harriett Baldwin visits Zimbabwe

February 1, 2018

Egypt’s non-oil business sector activity stabilises in Jan – PMI

February 5, 2018

POPULAR CATEGORY

  • News25229
  • Headlines15301
  • Sports10196
  • Politics3793
  • Africa2459
  • Business2246
  • Entertainment1908
  • Crime1840
  • Features893
ABOUT US
InfoTrust Multimedia Limited Ikeja, Lagos.
Contact us: [email protected]
FOLLOW US
  • Home
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
© 2019 Infotrustng.com. All Righs Reserved.
Edit with Live CSS
Save
Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete.