Press Release Summary – Survey reveals South Africans are dangerously under-insured

DISABILTY COVER: Assessing the efficiency of the South African insurance market in its provision of disability cover by True South Actuaries and Consultants (March 2013)

Key findings from survey

• Too little disability cover sold relative to life
• Within disability, temporary disability is the blind spot
• When it comes to permanent disability, sales are skewed in favour of lump sum benefits, with income replacement benefits making up less than 5% of total insurance cover sold in 2011, or 17% of permanent disability cover sold
• Quality of permanent disability poor:
  • too much lump sum (leaving consumers with risk they may not be aware of)
  • too much accelerated  cover

An independent  survey conducted  in March 2013 by True South Actuaries & Consultants (www.truesouth.co.za) and commissioned  by FMI (www.fmi.co.za) revealed that the South African disability insurance  gap currently stands at R11.1  trillion. That means in South Africa, almost  2 million self-employed  and commission workers are dangerously under-insured when it comes to disability