Risk vs reality: navigating financial planning in your young adulthood
According to Momentum Life Insurance’s 2025 claims statistics, 62% of death claims among claimants under the age of 30 resulted from unnatural causes, primarily motor vehicle accidents.
That figure matters because it reframes how we understand risk in early adulthood. It suggests that for younger South Africans, the greatest threats are not age-related illnesses but sudden, external events that can change a life in an instant. Vulnerability in this age group is driven less by ageing than by exposure to the world around them, like roads, workplaces, and everyday surroundings.
Momentum Life Insurance’s claims data for 2025 underscores this reality. It exposes a pattern that is often overlooked in conversations about financial planning: serious disruption does not wait for the ‘right stage of life.’ Yet many people still treat life insurance benefits such as disability cover, critical illness cover and income protection as something to consider later, after milestones like marriage, a home loan, or career stability. The data invites a harder question: what happens if ‘later’ never arrives?
The reality of the risk landscape
Engaging younger South Africans in long-term financial planning is an opportunity to channel their energy and ambition into a foundation for lasting success, while challenging the perception that youth alone provides protection against life’s uncertainties.
From a medical standpoint, young adults rarely experience the early warning signs of systemic illness; their bodies possess remarkable resilience and they often bounce back fast from minor illnesses, creating a false sense of security. But as the data suggests, one of the most significant risks facing young adults is more likely to come through a windshield than a medical diagnosis.
South Africa’s roads are notoriously high-risk environments, and young adults face immediate, daily exposure to this volatility through their commutes. Yet the behavioural response to this risk is often inconsistent. Young adults rarely question the need for comprehensive vehicle insurance when buying their first car, readily paying monthly premiums to protect a depreciating asset. At the same time, the far more valuable asset – their ability to earn an income and support themselves or their families – is often left uninsured.
Why young adults are delaying cover
Why are younger South Africans actively delaying life insurance? The reasons are straightforward: perceived irrelevance and affordability.
Many young adults believe life insurance only becomes necessary once they have dependants or major assets such as a home loan. As a result, they often underestimate the immediate financial consequences of an unexpected death, serious illness or injury. Costs such as medical bills, funeral expenses and outstanding debt can quickly become the responsibility of parents or other family members.
At the same time, cost pressures are real. Inflation, student debt and rising living expenses mean that life insurance is often deprioritised in favour of immediate financial needs or purchases that offer more immediate gratification, such as a car, fashionable clothing or the latest smartphone.
What is frequently overlooked in this trade-off is timing. Cover is generally most affordable when you are young and healthy. Delaying cover can therefore result in significantly higher premiums later in life, while also leaving you financially unprotected in the meantime.
The ripple effect of sudden loss
When an uninsured young adult loses their life or suffers a life-altering disability, the financial shockwaves don’t disappear; they travel backwards.
While a twenty-something may not have children depending on them, they are deeply integrated into a wider family ecosystem. In South Africa’s socio-economic landscape, a young graduate entering the workforce often represents a significant family investment. Many are expected to contribute to the household or uplift younger siblings.
The immediate financial liabilities of an unexpected health event or passing – ranging from medical costs to funeral costs to winding up an estate or settling outstanding short-term debts – often fall on parents or relatives. Rather than building a financial legacy, a sudden, unprotected tragedy can instantly derail a family’s collective financial security, depleting savings or forcing households into high-interest debt to cover emergency expenses.
Protection beyond mortality
The case for early protection becomes even stronger when we look beyond death claims and consider the financial impact of surviving a serious illness or disability.
Momentum Life Insurance’s 2025 claims data highlights that the youngest critical illness claimant was a 26-year-old man diagnosed with a debilitating neurological condition that results in parial paralysis, and the youngest income protection claimant was 19-year-old male who was paralysed following a motor vehicle accident.
These are not isolated anecdotes; they underscore a reality that many young adults underestimate. Serious illness, disability, or injury can occur far earlier than expected, often with life-altering consequences. A permanent physical impairment or serious illness in early adulthood can mean decades of medical expenses, reduced earning potential, and financial strain at a stage of life when most people have not yet built substantial savings or retirement assets.
Changing the conversation
If you are old enough to hold a driver’s license and earn an income, you are old enough to start protecting your financial future.
Life is unpredictable, and long-term insurance is not about expecting the worst. It is about ensuring that when the unexpected happens, individuals and families have the financial resilience to move forward with dignity and security.
The greatest advantage of youth is not invincibility; it is time. Using that time to put the right protection in place can make all the difference when life takes an unexpected turn.
By George Kolbe, Head of Life Insurance Marketing and Enablement at Momentum Life Insurance