Cancer once again accounted for the bulk of life cover claims at the big insurers during 2018, and the incidence of the disease across all age groups appears to be increasing.The disease comprised 20% of all claims at Momentum, about 28% at Liberty and about 27% at Sanlam.Key lessons from the latest claims statistics are that South Africans have insufficient cover and there is a greater need for cover for the survival of a traumatic event rather than for death cover only.Despite the catch-all name of life cover, life policies can include other benefits which not only pay out when you die but also if you contract a critical illness, become disabled and if you lose income because you cannot work due to illness or injury.According to Johan Minnie, managing executive of customer and adviser experience at Liberty, in 2018 just over 69% of benefits were paid out to surviving claimants and only 30% were death claims."Traditionally, life insurance has been more appropriately described a...
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