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ASISA says South Africa’s life and disability insurance gap has widened to R50.4 trillion
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FSCA data shows funeral cover is the most commonly held insurance product, but when it is excluded, the share of South Africans with insurance drops to 19%
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Capitec says many South Africans miss the benefits of life cover, leaving families exposed after the funeral
According to the 2025 Insurance Gap Study released by the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa, South Africa’s life and disability insurance gap has widened to R50.4 trillion. The average South African income earner has a shortfall of around R3.1 million in death and disability cover, and existing cover meets only 39% of what families need to maintain their standard of living. Following the death of a breadwinner, the average household would have to cut spending by 34% – or find an extra R7 400 every month – just to stay afloat.
The same study says around 440 income earners are expected to die every day in South Africa in 2025, while 145 are likely to become disabled daily. For many families, that means the loss of an income, the pressure of immediate expenses and the longer-term reality of trying to keep a household going.
For Capitec, South Africa’s leading diversified financial services group, these figures point to a bigger responsibility: helping clients to understand what cover they are paying for. It’s something Deepesh Desai, CEO of Capitec Life, believes should be an industry standard, arguing that too much focus has gone into products, services and payouts.
“Our industry is good at talking about insurance products, but not nearly good enough at talking about the people whose needs these products were developed to protect,” says Desai . “Choosing cover isn’t simply a financial decision. It’s one of the most meaningful promises we can make to the people we love – that even if we’re no longer here, they’ll still be protected.”
Changing the conversation
One simple intervention may be for the industry to change the way it talks about life insurance, especially when it comes to the difference between life and funeral cover.
Funeral cover has much higher take-up among South Africans, with 24 million having some form of funeral cover. Of those, 10.5 million have more than one policy. FSCA data also shows that funeral cover is the most commonly held insurance product in the country. But when funeral cover is excluded, the share of South Africans with life insurance drops to 19%.
The disparity between being over-insured with funeral policies and under-insured with life insurance may be down to the fact that many families see the two as interchangeable, despite the very different roles they play in protecting a family’s future.
Funeral cover helps families through one of life’s most immediate and difficult moments, easing the financial burden of saying goodbye.
Life cover protects what comes afterwards, helping families continue paying for everyday life, whether that’s keeping children in school, maintaining a home, covering monthly expenses or protecting future opportunities.
Together, they tell a much bigger story: one provides support in the immediate moment of loss. The other provides stability for the life that continues beyond it.
Education and simplicity
It’s something that Capitec is trying to change, both with its messaging around life cover and the products it offers.
Its latest television campaign, for instance, doesn’t lead with the product or the policy benefits it offers. Instead, it tells a deeply human story through a symbol every South African instinctively understands: a blanket.
Across cultures, a blanket represents warmth, comfort and protection. It’s one of the very first ways we show love to another person. The gesture acts as a metaphor for people’s ability to continue protecting the people they care about, even after they’re gone. The idea at the heart of the campaign is simple: the true value of life and funeral cover is rarely felt by the person paying for it. It is felt by the people they love and leave behind. Cover isn’t a purchase so much as an act of care – the quiet knowledge that someone thought about you long before they had to.
But messaging is only part of the solution. The process also needs to be as simple as possible for people to access life cover.
“When something is this important, it shouldn’t feel complicated,” says Desai. “People don’t avoid cover because they don’t love their families. They often avoid it because the process feels intimidating, confusing or overwhelming. We wanted to remove those barriers so families can focus on what really matters: protecting the people they care about.”
Which is why Capitec has tried to completely strip complexity from the process of taking out cover. Clients can take up cover at any Capitec branch or through the app. Life cover requires just eight simple questions, with no medical, no annual premium increases and flexible payout options designed around different family needs.
Funeral cover, meanwhile, offers predictable premiums with no automatic annual premium increases, as well as a six-month premium pause during periods of financial difficulty, recognising that life’s unexpected moments don’t only happen after loss.
One change at a time
“When people understand their cover, they choose better, and the people who depend on them are properly protected,” says Desai.
The shift that Capitec Cover is asking the country to make is to see cover not as another line item, but as one of the most enduring promises a person can leave behind – that the people who matter most will still feel protected, even when we are no longer around.
