Insurance that works when life is being lived: Discovery Life’s 25-year journey

Johannesburg, 26 November 2025 – For 25 years, Discovery Life has been rewriting the rules of life insurance – shifting value from the moment of loss to the moments that matter most: while clients are living.

Today, more than 60% of payouts go to clients during their lifetimes, compared to an industry norm of just 20% to 30%. In 2024 alone, the insurer paid R3.1 billion in living benefits and returned R2.4 billion in Shared-value rewards*. This milestone marks a fundamental transformation: life insurance that not only protects against risk but also actively improves health and financial resilience.

“Over the past 25 years, we’ve shifted life insurance from paying mostly at death to delivering value throughout life,” says Riaan van Reenen, CEO of Discovery Life. “By linking protection to behaviour, we’ve shown that life insurance can actively improve health, reduce risk and deliver meaningful value throughout a client’s life – it’s life insurance that works when life is being well lived.”

Closing South Africa’s protection gap

The need for innovation has never been greater. The latest Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) Insurance Gap Study estimates the national protection gap to be R50,4 trillion, with formally employed earners holding, on average, only 39% of the cover their families would need if they died or became disabled.

Discovery Life’s scale – covering more than 450,000 lives and R2.2 trillion in force – positions it to play a meaningful role in strengthening household resilience.

“A R50 trillion protection gap shows how vulnerable many households remain,” says van Reenen. “Innovation is essential to improve cover and long-term wellbeing.”

25 years of industry-shaping innovation

Since its launch in 2000, Discovery Life has consistently challenged convention to make life insurance more transparent, affordable and relevant:

• Risk-only model: Pioneered South Africa’s first risk-only life insurance, cutting premiums by 30% and driving an estimated R1.1 billion in annual consumer savings.

• Objective medical criteria: Introduced fairer, medically-based disability definitions, reducing disability-claim complaints by 67% across the industry.

• Behaviour-linked rewards: Paid over R13.2 billion to clients through Vitality PayBacks for engaging in healthy behaviours.

• Education protection: Global Education Protector paid R67 million in 2024, with R594 million in future education costs expected for families currently claiming.

• The Dollar Life Plan: The first authentic offshore life insurance plan in US dollars available in South Africa, with over $70 million accumulated in PayBacks.

• Cash Conversions: Enabled clients to convert unused life cover into tax-free retirement lump sums, paying out over R3.1 billion to date and more than R7 billion to be paid out in the next five years.

“Our innovations are designed to solve real risks faced by real families,” says van Reenen. “Whether it’s protecting education, managing global liabilities or giving clients more certainty in retirement, each solution is built to improve resilience over a lifetime.”

Behaviour-linked protection is changing long-term risk

Discovery Life’s data shows that clients who achieve Gold or Diamond Vitality Status – through sustained engagement across the Vitality programme – experience 57% lower mortality risk and 47% lower disability risk compared to those who do not. This sustained reduction in risk creates a surplus that is returned to clients, making life insurance more sustainable for families and the industry.

“The long-term shift in underlying risk is one of the most important outcomes of our model,” says van Reenen. “Our model improves health and reduces risk. If you can influence lifestyle behaviours like exercise, diet, smoking, and alcohol usage, you can reduce non-communicable diseases, which account for more than 60% of deaths worldwide. That’s what Vitality and shared value insurance do.”

The next 25 years: Precision, personalisation and prevention

Looking ahead, Discovery Life aims to deepen its impact through technology, AI-driven insights and personalised cover.

“The next 25 years will be defined by precision,” says van Reenen. “Precision in understanding risk, in improving health and in delivering value. We now have tools we didn’t have before to guide people to live longer, healthier lives.

“Our purpose is simple: when people thrive, society prospers. That principle has guided us for 25 years and will continue to guide us for the next 25,” he concludes.

NOTE TO EDITORS

*Shared-value rewards are benefits paid back to clients for engaging in healthier behaviour that reduces long-term insurance risk, such as regular screening, exercise or getting vaccinated. The savings are returned through PayBacks, a percentage of premiums paid back to clients for sustained healthy behaviour, and Cash Conversions, unused life cover that is converted into a tax-free lump sum at retirement.