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- About Severe Illness Cover
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Financial protection and support during serious illness
The last thing you should be worrying about if you’re diagnosed with a dread disease like cancer or suffer a severe illness event like a heart attack, stroke, or heart disease is surviving financially.
Sanlam Severe Illness Cover makes sure that you’re able to cover the unexpected costs of a serious illness – including treatment expenses not covered by medical aid and gap cover as well as necessary adjustments to your lifestyle – even if you’re able to continue working through your illness. And because we’re committed to paying on our promise, we follow a consistent, fair and objective assessment approach that saw us paying out R549.9 million for severe illness and injury cover in 2025.
Now is the time to protect your future
Taking out critical illness cover today ensures that if you’re diagnosed with a serious condition in the future, you and your family will be in a position to survive it financially. And given that this type of insurance looks after you as well as your loved ones, it makes financial sense whether you already have a family to support or you’re just looking after yourself right now. Ready to take the next step?
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What’s the difference between Severe Illness Cover and Life Cover
Not sure whether you should opt for life insurance or severe illness cover or both? Here’s a look at what each one has to offer.
Life Insurance
Life insurance is designed to provide financial support for your family should you pass away unexpectedly by paying out a tax-free lump sum that can be used to cover immediate and future expenses.
Payout is fast because we understand that the loss of a loved one creates immediate expenses, we give you the option of separating your life insurance payment into two portions.
Severe illness cover
FAQs
Take a closer look at our cover
How are claims submitted?
Because we understand that claims are submitted under very difficult and distressing circumstances, we’ve kept the process as simple and straightforward as possible. All claims can be submitted online in a few easy steps, and we’re here to help you every step of the way.How do Wealth Bonus and Cashback benefits work?
We've created two valuable benefits that reward you for keeping your cover in place. As a Sanlam client with a qualifying product, you have the option of adding our Cashback benefit to any qualifying new or existing risk plan. It rewards you for keeping your cover intact, and pays out after 15 years of continued contributions to your policy. A set additional payment of 50% is charged for the Cashback benefit on a specific cover layer. This payment falls away after 15 years – even if the Cashback amount is left to further accumulate – ensuring great value for money.
Put the payout towards your children’s education, home renovations, unexpected expenses or even your retirement. Alternatively, you can choose to leave your lump sum to grow until you need it. You can also look forward to benefiting from Wealth Bonus® – a portion of your contribution that’s invested in a Money Market fund until you turn 70, ensuring that your money keeps making money. Wealth Bonus unlocks every 5 years, a portion of your Wealth Bonus® is made available to you to withdraw or leave invested.What other benefits do I get with Sanlam Life Insurance?
Sanlam Reality is a lifestyle and rewards programme available to Sanlam Group clients and the public.
As a member, you qualify for special offers on selected Sanlam products, including Sanlam Life Insurance, where you could save as much as 30% on the cost of your monthly premium. You’ll also save money on wellness, travel and entertainment, and earn tier points for financially responsible behaviour.
The more points you earn, the better your status and the bigger your discounts on certain benefits.
How is my severe illness premium calculated?
Underwriting may sound complicated, but it is essentially the process your insurance provider uses to determine your risk status. This in turn affects your cover amount and monthly premiums, and establishes whether any special terms and conditions apply to your policy.
To help our underwriters calculate your status, you’ll be asked to supply information relating to your health, medical history, occupation and financial situation as well as details about where plan to travel and any potentially dangerous activities you participate in. You may also be required to complete a medical test.
Our underwriting process is designed to ensure that you pay a fair premium for the full term of your cover and that your beneficiaries are able to claim confidently when the time comes. As carrying more risk for our clients forms part of our underwriting philosophy, your policy will remain unaffected should you change your occupation or smoking habits or take up risky activities after it has been issued.
What happens if I can’t pay my severe illness premium?
It is important that you regularly pay your premium to keep your cover intact. Should you be unable to pay your premium, it may have an impact on you being covered. It is very important to contact us immediately should you skip premiums, to discuss options of how to keep your valuable cover in place, and stay protected.
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