Gareth Friedlander, Deputy CEO of Discovery Life

Discovery Life has announced its annual claim statistics for 2025, showing that R11,5 billion was paid to clients. Of individual life policy payouts, 65% was for supporting clients through illness, disability and income loss, and shared-value payments for managing their health and wellness.

The total amount paid in 2025 included:

• R6,9 billion in individual life insurance claims
• R2,4 billion in shared-value payments
• R2,2 billion in Group Risk claims

Of the R6,9 billion paid to individual life insurance clients, R3,2 billion was paid through life cover benefits. A further R1,8 billion for Severe Illness Benefits and R987 million for Capital Disability Benefits were paid as lump sums. R684 million was paid through Income Continuation Benefits, providing an income when clients can’t work because of a covered illness or disability.

R268 million was paid through additional benefits, including Funeral Plan cover and the Global Education Protector, which covers the cost of education from preschool to tertiary if a parent passes away or suffers a severe illness or disability.

“Life insurance is no longer just about what happens when someone dies. More and more, it’s about supporting people while they are still alive – helping them navigate severe illness, disability or income disruption,” says Gareth Friedlander, Deputy CEO of Discovery Life.

“Across the industry, around 20% to 30% of payouts are living benefits. At Discovery Life, 52% of risk payouts now support clients during life, which reflects how life insurance is evolving to provide protection throughout a person’s life.”

AI-driven health insights enable earlier detection and better outcomes

In 2025, Discovery Life launched the Personalised PayBack Booster, rewarding clients for completing health actions recommended through Discovery Health’s Personalised Health Pathways (PHP), which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse each clients’ health profile and engagement patterns to recommend personalised preventative actions and screenings.

Within just a year of launching this feature, over 18,000 screening actions prompted by Personalised Health Pathways were completed by Discovery Life clients, including:

• 9,476 cancer screenings
• 5,469 health checks
• 2,504 metabolic health screenings
• 714 organ health screenings

These proactive health screenings led to 47 diagnoses, which triggered Severe Illness Benefit claims, including 35 cancer claims – 32 of which were detected at stage 1 or 2 – as well as 12 heart and artery conditions requiring treatment.

Dr Deidre Kotze, Chief Medical Officer at Discovery Life, explains: “AI is enabling highly personalised recommendations based on each client’s health profile and behavioural patterns. By guiding clients toward the screenings most relevant to them, we are increasingly able to detect serious conditions earlier, when treatment options are broader, and outcomes are often significantly better.”

Clients who completed these preventative actions received R13,7 million in additional rewards accumulations through the Personalised PayBack Booster.

Cancer remains a significant driver of claims, but early detection is rising

Cancer continues to be a major contributor to claims across all benefits:

• 45% of Severe Illness Benefit claims
• 37% of Capital Disability Benefit claims
• 28% of Life Cover claims (second only to heart and artery conditions at 29%)
• 11% of Income Continuation Benefit claims
• R1,25 billion in life insurance premiums PayBacks for engaging in healthy behaviour
• R1,16 billion through the Cash Conversion benefit, which pays up to the value of your full life cover at age 65 in 10 annual payments in retirement.

Since 2022, Severe Illness claims for lower-severity cancers (Severity D to G) have increased by 22% annually, compared with an 11% annual increase for higher-severity cancers (Severity A to C).

“We’re seeing earlier detection in cancers with established screening programmes, including breast, prostate, cervical and colon cancer,” says Dr Kotze. “Early detection dramatically improves outcomes. For example, someone diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer has a five-year survival rate of 96%, while men diagnosed with localised prostate cancer can expect a 99% five-year survival rate. As a group, we are committed to ensuring that we protect the lives of our clients, and incentivising early screening is part of this commitment.”

While cancer remains a significant cause of claims, Discovery Life paid Severe Illness claims across 215 unique conditions, totalling R1,8 billion (up from R1.54 billion in 2024). This highlights the importance of comprehensive whole-body coverage.

Cover designed for multiple serious health events over time

While only 4% of current clients had claimed for Severe Illness before the year, the 2025 data shows that 22% of Severe Illness claims were for subsequent events, amounting to R320 million. Of these subsequent events in the same body system, 64% occurred at the same or lower severity.

“Health events don’t always happen just once. Many traditional policies limit claims linked to the same condition, but our cover is designed to support clients for recurring or related conditions,” explains Friedlander. “For example, one client submitted 21 related claims over time for a series of heart and artery conditions, including heart attacks and angioplasty procedures – and received payouts for each event.”

Shared-value model continues to strengthen health and financial resilience

Discovery Life has paid R18.8 billion in shared-value rewards to clients to date. In 2025 alone, payouts totalled R2.4 billion, comprising:

“Engagement in Vitality, Discovery’s behaviour-based programme that incentivises healthy living, has been at the core of Discovery Life’s story. Clients who reach Gold or Diamond status have a 73% lower mortality risk and a 45% lower disability risk than clients who did not engage in the programme,” says Friedlander. “The surplus created by these positive health outcomes is then shared with clients through our unique benefits and financial rewards. It took 13 years to pay out our first billion in cumulative shared-value payments, but we now pay more than R2 billion to clients each year.

A 25-year track record of protecting clients

Discovery Life paid more than R67 billion in claims over the past 25 years. Notably, R36 billion of this was paid in the last five years alone – more than the total paid in the previous 20 years combined. This growth reflects how the business has extended its product suite and client base over time.

The business maintains a 99,3% claims payout rate, with a small proportion of claims declined due to non-disclosure (0,4%), misrepresentation (0,15%) and fraud (0,15%).

“These figures reflect the strength of our underwriting process and our commitment to paying valid claims,” says Sylvia Steyn, Head of Claims at Discovery Life. “Our underwriting team works with our clients to understand their health needs so that the cover performs exactly as intended at the point of claim.”

Comprehensive protection for every chapter of life

“With rising lifestyle diseases and a growing protection gap, comprehensive life insurance plays an essential role in helping people maintain their financial resilience,” says Friedlander. “Our Shared-value Insurance model enables people to live healthier lives with peace of mind that they are covered for the unexpected – providing protection for every chapter.”

ENDS