The latest statistics from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) show a clear surge in South Africa’s mortality experience through COVID-19. Analysts are now suggesting that actual deaths due to the disease are some 2.5 to 3 times higher than government’s official numbers. “Our death experience very closely tracked the national statistics and the national pattern reported to date,” says Reinier Van Gijsen, Head of Pricing at Sanlam Corporate. He was presenting on the impact of COVID-19 on group insurance at an In conversation with Sanlam Corporate event.

Ill-thought and ill-timed investment decisions taken to avoid the COVID-19 financial market correction have cost Momentum Investments’ clients more than R100 million between April and December 2020. A recent study by the asset manager concludes that behaviour-linked financial decisions caused the average investor to lose 6.5% of his or her portfolio value between March and September last year. It is now clearer than ever that investors destroy value by allowing their behavioural programming to undo sensible long-term investment strategies, selling out of equity positions that are meant to deliver returns over decades in response to market volatility that lasts, at most, a couple of quarters.