Wave of COVID-19 Deaths Hit RGA Hard

Although the company lost money in the second quarter, the U.S. group and individual health reinsurance businesses both performed better than expected, and the life reinsurance business has done better than RGA had expected it to perform in a major pandemic, executives said.

Mortality Details

After the second quarter, RGA executives told analysts they were optimistic about the effects of COVID-19 vaccination programs on mortality.

Instead, "the third quarter saw increases in both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 general population mortality," Porter said.

In the United States and India, the typical age of people dying of COVID-19 is falling, Porter added.

That hurts life insurers because people under 65 are more likely than older people to have life insurance.

In South Africa, the pandemic had more of an effect on wealthier provinces than earlier in the pandemic, and the South Africans who died this quarter were more likely to have life insurance.

RGA still expects to record about $10 million to $20 million in losses for every 10,000 pandemic-related deaths in the general population, Porter said.

The Future

RGA executives said they still hope vaccination programs will reduce COVID-19 mortality.

"We expect some continuing impact from COVID-19 claims, but we believe these will be manageable and point to increasing vaccination rates globally as a reason for optimism," Anna Manning, the company's CEO, said.

Vaccination rates in places like India and South Africa are increasing rapidly, Porter said.

Anna Manning (Photo: Geneva Association)