The most complained about insurance companies in South Africa in 2017
The ombudsman for long-term insurance has released its annual report for 2016, detailing South Africa’s most complained about insurers.
According to the ombudsman, the aim of publication is to promote accountability and transparency. It also aims to encourage insurers to benchmark their standards of complaints, against other insurers and to learn from insurers who
appear to be better at complaints handling.
Although there are a number of published reports reflecting market share in the long-term insurance industry, there is no single generally accepted measure for it and, therefore, this is not reflected in the published data.
However a July 2016 report by KPMG indicates that Santam (including its Sanlam subsidaries) is by far the biggest long-term insurer in South Africa with 24% of the market share, followed by Hollard at 11% and Mutual & Federal with 10%.
Biggest Insurers in South Africa
| # | Company | share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santam | 24% |
| 2 | Hollard | 11% |
| 3 | Mutual & Federal | 10% |
| 4 | Guardrisk | 8% |
| 5 | Outsurance | 7% |
| 6 | Telesure | 6% |
| 7 | Absa | 4% |
| 8 | Zurich | 4% |
| 9 | AIG | 3% |
| 10 | Standard Insurance | 2% |
| Other | 21% |
Most complained about insurer
The ombudsman’s office received 9,871 written requests for assistance during 2016, marginally exceeding the 9,815 of the previous year.
Of those requests 5,284 were chargeable complaints exceeding the 2015 volume by 266. The other requests were intended for other ombudsman’s offices or were unconnected with life insurance or for some other reason were not within the jurisdiction of this office.
The two biggest reasons for complaints were claims that had been declined by the insurer (almost 50%) of the overall total, and poor communications (30%).
The most complained about insurers:
- Old Mutual Life Assurance – 13.77%
- Liberty – 11.18%
- Metropolitan Life – 7.16%
- MMI – 6.02%
- Assupol – 5.71%
A full breakdown of complaints and rulings for all long-term insurers in the country can be found below:
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