The Association for Savings and Investment South Africa’s (Asisa) long-term insurance statistics show that the industry has crossed a major financial milestone with assets under management exceeding R5-trillion for the first time.
Life insurers ended 2025 with R5.2-trillion in assets, helped by strong performance on the stock market. While insurers are stronger than ever, many consumers are struggling to keep their cover in place.
‘Life insurers paid out R626bn in 2025’
Lucienne Fild, Asisa Spokesperson, said life insurers paid out R626-billion in claims and benefits during the year, reflecting the scale of support provided to households during moments of crisis, including death, disability and retirement.
At the same time, the number of policies in force increased by 4% to 46.2-million, indicating continued demand for financial protection.
‘Long-term insurance industry remains financially strong’
Gareth Friedlander, an Asisa Life and Risk Board Committee Member, said the long-term insurance industry remains financially strong.
Asisa statistics show that, collectively, life insurers held R380.5-billion in reserves at the end of December 2025, against the Prudential Authority’s Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR) of R222.9-billion. That means there is a healthy average SCR cover ratio of 1.71 (or 1.71 times the legal requirement).
‘Industry has expanded steadily over past 5 years’
Friedlander explained that the SCR is calibrated under the Solvency Assessment and Management (SAM) regulatory framework to ensure that insurers can meet their obligations to policyholders should a 1-in-200-year risk event occur.
“When insurers exceed the required SCR, it means that they have enough capital to survive an event even more catastrophic than the 1-in-200-year risk event.
“When life insurers aggressively pursue capital efficiency by deploying resources to increase their return on capital, they tend to target SCR cover ratios towards the lower end of their risk appetite ranges,” said Friedlander.
Over the past five years, the industry has expanded steadily, with assets rising from R3.7-trillion in 2021 to R5.2 trillion in 2025. Liabilities have also grown, reaching R4.9-trillion last year.
‘Lapses have started to increase again’
He said a worrying trend has re-emerged in the risk segment of the market. While consumers took out 10.8-million new recurring premium risk policies in 2025, up modestly from 10.4-million the previous year, lapses have started to increase again.
In total, 8.7-million risk policies lapsed in 2025, compared with 8.2-million in 2024. A lapse occurs when policyholders stop paying premiums, leaving them without cover and with no fund value.
Friedlander said this trend could deepen the country’s already significant protection gap, “Policy lapses are always concerning. Unless lapsed policies are replaced with new policies, lapses widen South Africa’s sizeable insurance gap, leaving more families financially vulnerable should their breadwinner die or become disabled.”
Signs of improving financial discipline
In the savings segment, consumer behaviour reflects similar financial strain. The number of new recurring premium savings policies, such as endowments and retirement annuities, dropped by 5.5% to 537,203 in 2025.
There are also signs of improving financial discipline. Policy surrenders, where investors withdraw their savings before maturity, continued to decline. In 2025, 458,848 recurring premium savings policies were surrendered, down from 521,736 in 2024.
Meanwhile, demand for single premium savings products showed modest growth, rising by 5.1% to 218 276 policies.,
