Third wave COVID-19 death claims rate for insured population almost four times higher the expected death rate

South Africa’s largest life insurers received 22 544 death claims against fully underwritten life policies* in the 19 months between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year and the end of September 2021. While not all the claims were for policyholders who died as a result of COVID-19, five of South Africa’s largest life insurance companies reported a fourfold increase in death claims at the peak of the third wave against a book of 2.09 million fully underwritten new generation life policies. : Marc Burgess , an Actuary And member of The Actuarial Society's Continuous Statistical Investigation (CSI) Committee joins us to discuss.