One company paying South Africans R50 million every working day

Liberty paid out R12.63 billion worth of insurance claims in 2025 across its range of product offerings, which equates to around R50 million worth of claim payouts every working day. 

These payouts range from life insurance death claims, income protection, funeral policies, and wellness bonus payments. 

Across its flagship Lifestyle Protector product, Liberty paid out R7.79 billion in claims to over 27,000 South Africans. This equates to paying out R31 million per working day in 2025.

This was revealed by the insurer during its 2025 Claims Statistics presentation to the media, where Liberty’s experts unpacked trends in the local insurance market. 

Much of Liberty’s focus lies in what it terms “risk” business, which includes life insurance and income protection, as this is the company’s largest segment. 

The insurer also has an extensive corporate benefits offering, which is a product suite tailored to employers to provide coverage for their employees alongside retirement products. 

As with any insurer, Liberty uses its claims data to analyse its product suite, broader market trends, and lifestyle trends among its clients. 

Head of risk technical marketing at Liberty, Tom Crotty, told Daily Investor that much of Liberty’s work centres on removing uncertainty for its clients. 

“Life insurance is effectively there to remove uncertainty. We know that at some future point there will be an impact on you from a health event in your life, and you need coverage for that,” Crotty said. 

“What people do is shift that uncertainty to a life insurer who pools all the risks and then provides the certainty that, should something happen, you will be paid out.” 

The key behind this certainty is the payment of claims, as that is when an insurer can provide a tangible example of certainty to a client. 

Liberty displays this every year through the release of its claim statistics, which show that its flagship Lifestyle Protector product alone paid out R31 million to clients every working day in 2025. 

Crotty said this equates to paying out 281,000 social grants, or 23,000 in annual average salaries in South Africa. 

These claims were paid out across 27,976 individuals, which Liberty estimates impacts around 140,000 people through beneficiaries. 

Less than 10% of claims were rejected in 2025, with the vast majority rejected for individuals who did not meet the payout criteria. 

The insurer has paid out R90 billion worth of claims over the past two decades, which would be enough to construct three Gautrains. 

Normalisation and trends

Crotty explained that, by nature, insurance claims do not change much year-on-year, with only slight changes noticed at a high level. 

For example, the number of claims paid out by Liberty rose by 7% year-on-year, with the total paid out rising by R275 million. 

While high-level claims payouts may not change dramatically year-on-year, Liberty keeps a close eye on trends that may require it to encourage lifestyle changes among its clients or adjust pricing. 

For example, with a rise in kidney issues among males, Liberty may encourage earlier screening to prevent the issue from becoming more severe and future claims being larger. 

Crotty explained that one of the trickier aspects of life insurance is looking at a life over the long term, when health events become more severe and claims more significant later in life. 

As expected, the majority of claims were from older clients, with the average age at claim being 60 for women and 64 for men. 

However, this does not mean that young individuals are not claimants as well, with Liberty’s youngest death claim involving a 22-year-old male. 

Around 25% of claims were from male clients under 55 and 35% from female clients under 55.

There are also significant differences between men and women, with females having a much higher incidence of cancer, largely due to the prevalence of breast cancer. 

On the other hand, males tend to have higher incidences of cardiovascular disorders. 

Cancer remains the largest driver of claims among Liberty’s client base, with cardiovascular disorders taking second place. These two combined make up over 50% of all claims in 2025. 

Crotty explained that the industry has normalised since the end of Covid-19, with the expected rise in severe illnesses or long Covid not being seen in the data. 

“We did see higher claims for the 2021, 2022, and 2023 years because of the impact of Covid, which went beyond the illness itself,” Crotty said. 

“But, longer-term, that was always going to come back to the typical cancer claims and cardiovascular disorders.”