Fin24 reports that Momentum Metropolitan Holdings (MMH) says Covid-19 death claims during the recent third wave of infections were more severe than the company initially expected.

Initially, most insurance firms expected the severity of the third wave to be somewhere between the first and the second waves. They expected fewer death claims than what they had fielded between December 2020 and February this year. But the death rate proved higher than those expectations. Momentum Life was severely impacted and its Myriad protection product paid R1.8 billion in gross mortality claims where Covid-19 was reported as the cause of death. Momentum Corporate, the business unit that provides work-based insurance and other benefits, also experienced increased death claims across all ages. The business saw more claims from members who were at higher salary levels, which resulted in the average claim sizes increasing 33% from last year. The average monthly claims in the past year were nearly double the three-year pre-pandemic monthly average. Metropolitan Life, which predominantly sells funeral cover products, experienced approximately 20,000 or 70% more deaths than expected. Altogether, MMH said in the 12 months to end-June, its SA life insurance businesses paid close to R11 billion in death claims, compared to an average of around R6 billion a year over the three years preceding the pandemic.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Londiwe Buthelezi at Fin24

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