This article forms part of my Retirement Income Survival series, where I look at the practical question many South Africans face: will my financial plan still work ten, twenty or even thirty years into retirement?

Separately, I am also running a personal 104-week health and wellness challenge. That project reminds me every week that small, consistent decisions compound into outcomes that no single large decision could produce. The same principle applies to financial planning. This article belongs to the wealth side of the discussion — but the lesson is the same: the choices made quietly, years before they matter, are the ones that shape everything.

This week's topic is long-term premium affordability.

Many people buy life cover while they are still working. At that stage, the premium feels manageable. It fits the budget. It is a sensible, responsible decision. But the more important question is not only whether the cover is affordable today. The real question is whether it will still be affordable at age 70, 75 or 80. That is why premium patterns matter. And that is what this article is about.

The Real Retirement Problem

There is a version of retirement planning that most South Africans are familiar with. Save enough. Invest well. Arrive at age 65 with a reasonable nest egg. That is not a bad plan. But it is an incomplete one.

The part that receives far less attention is what happens after retirement begins. Specifically: how do you keep a financial plan functional and affordable when you are 75, 80 or older?

South Africans are, broadly speaking, living longer. Improvements in healthcare, better access to treatment and growing awareness of wellness have extended the average retirement significantly. A retirement that was once expected to last ten or twelve years may now extend to twenty-five or thirty. That is not a minor adjustment — it changes the entire financial equation.

When a retirement lasts thirty years, several compounding pressures emerge simultaneously. Inflation erodes spending power year after year. Medical and healthcare costs tend to rise faster than general inflation in South Africa. Long-term care needs — the kind that require assistance with daily activities — become significantly more common with advancing age. And the cost of maintaining financial protection products, including life cover, does not stay still.

A plan that works comfortably at age 60 may come under serious strain at age 80 — not because the investments failed, but because the cost of living inside that plan has grown beyond what a fixed or declining retirement income can sustain. This is the retirement income problem. And it deserves far more attention than most plans give it.

The question that too few people ask — and that too few advisers are prompted to answer clearly — is this: what will this premium look like in twenty years? At age 70? At 75? At 80? And will a household living on pension income, investment drawdowns and reduced earnings still be able to afford it comfortably?

Life insurance premiums do not stay level forever, unless specifically structured to do so. Most policies include some form of annual increase — linked to age, to inflation, to benefit growth, or to a combination of these. Over a twenty or thirty year period, compounding increases can transform a manageable monthly premium into a significant and potentially unaffordable commitment. If a policy lapses in retirement because it has become too expensive, the protection it was meant to provide disappears at precisely the point it may be needed most.

How Premium Structures Work: The Basics

Different life insurance policies structure their premiums in different ways. Understanding these structures — even at a basic level — is useful for anyone reviewing a long-term financial plan. This is educational context only, not product advice. The specific rules, options and conditions of any policy should always be confirmed with the relevant insurer or your financial adviser.

In broad terms, most life insurance premium structures fall somewhere along a spectrum between two approaches.

Neither approach is inherently better than the other. The right structure depends on individual circumstances — income, age, health, retirement timeline, existing assets and income projections. What matters is that the structure chosen today is reviewed through the lens of retirement affordability, not only current affordability.

Beyond the basic spectrum, some insurers also offer sustainability options — structures designed to allow clients to pre-fund future premiums, or to cap increases at a defined point in retirement. These can be valuable planning tools, but they typically involve trade-offs between upfront cost and long-term savings. Understanding those trade-offs requires a careful, personalised review with a qualified adviser.

Discovery Life as a Planning Example

I want to use Discovery Life as a practical example here — not as a product recommendation, but as an illustration of how one insurer has thought carefully about the challenge of long-term premium sustainability.

Based on product information reviewed, Discovery Life offers a range of funding pattern options on their life plans. These include structures referred to as Standard, AcceleRater, FlexRater and newer fixed-increase options. Each works differently in terms of starting premium and annual increase trajectory. The availability of specific options depends on the product, plan type and terms in force at the time. Clients should speak directly to Discovery Life or their financial adviser to understand which options apply to their specific policy.

What stands out when reviewing publicly available material on these structures is not the technical detail. It is the underlying intent. The fact that a major insurer has developed multiple funding options — including options specifically designed to improve affordability and sustainability in retirement — tells us something important. The industry understands that keeping a policy in force through a long retirement is genuinely difficult. And it has begun building tools to help clients do that.

Published product information from Discovery Life also references how long-term health engagement through Vitality may, in certain integrated plan structures, assist in reducing age-related premium increases over time. At the time of writing, this appears to be available on specific plan types only. This is a reminder that retirement affordability is not purely a financial question — it connects to how people manage their health across decades. Clients with Discovery Life policies should verify the specific details that apply to their plan directly with Discovery Life or a qualified financial adviser.

The Lesson for Clients

The lesson here is not about choosing one product over another. It is not a recommendation to switch, change or amend any existing policy. It is a simpler and more important point:

Ask what your plan will cost in the future.

Most South Africans with life insurance policies have never seen a projection of their premium at age 70 or 80. Many have never asked for one. This is understandable — when you take out a policy in your thirties or forties, retirement feels distant. But the longer you leave this conversation, the fewer options you have to act on it.

The time to review long-term premium affordability is before it becomes a problem — ideally as part of a regular, structured financial review. Not after a premium increase has already placed strain on a retirement income, and not at a point where the remaining options are difficult ones.

Five Questions Worth Asking at Your Next Review

• What is my current premium pattern, and how does it increase each year?
• What could my premium look like at age 70, 75 and 80?
• Does my expected retirement income allow for these projected increases?
• Are there options available to make my future premiums more sustainable?
• Should my adviser review my policy structure before I reach retirement?

These questions apply regardless of who your insurer is. They are planning questions, not product questions. Speak to an AS Brokers adviser to work through them in the context of your full financial picture.

Health gives us time. Wealth gives us freedom. But both require the same discipline: understanding the systems that shape your outcomes long before those outcomes arrive. The goal of this series is not to find the best product or chase the highest return. The goal is to understand the forces that shape long-term financial sustainability — so that the decisions made today are made with clarity about what they will mean in twenty or thirty years.

Premium affordability in retirement is one of those forces. It operates quietly, compounding in one direction or another, while most people focus on more immediate concerns. Understanding it — even at a high level — changes the quality of every conversation you have about it.

A Personal Reflection

What I keep thinking about, more than any technical detail, is the gap between the conversation people have when they take out a policy and the conversation they need to have twenty years later.

When I sit with a client to review their plan, one of the most useful things I can do is show them a projection of their commitments — not just their investments. What will you be paying each month at 70? At 75? Does your income plan cover that? Have you thought about what options exist to manage those costs before retirement rather than during it?

These are not difficult questions. But they are questions that often get skipped in favour of more immediate conversations about returns and benefits. The result is that many clients arrive at retirement with plans built for a different future than the one they are now living in.

Retirement planning is not about years. It is about decades. And the decisions that shape those decades are usually not the dramatic ones. They are the quiet ones — made in planning conversations, reviewed annually, adjusted calmly before pressure forces a reaction.

Common Questions

The Question Most Plans Don't Answer

The retirement income problem does not announce itself with a dramatic event. It arrives quietly — in the form of premiums that have grown faster than expected, medical aid increases that compound year after year, and a retirement income that felt generous at 65 but feels increasingly strained at 78.

The people who navigate retirement well are rarely those who made the best investment decisions in their forties. They are the ones who built plans designed to last — not just to reach a destination, but to sustain a life across decades.

The real question is not: "Can I afford this today?"

The real question is: "Will this still be affordable twenty years from now?" That question deserves a clear, honest answer — and the best time to find it is long before you need it.

Action Checklist

Before your next review

• Find out which funding pattern your current life insurance policy uses.
• Ask your insurer or adviser for a premium projection to ages 70, 75 and 80.
• Compare those projected premiums against your expected retirement income.
• Ask whether any sustainability options — such as pre-funding or fixed-increase structures — are available on your policy.
• Schedule a comprehensive review before you reach retirement, not after.
• Speak to an AS Brokers adviser to see how this fits into your broader retirement income plan.

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Disclosure: Albert Schuurman is an authorised independent financial adviser and may earn remuneration from products or services discussed on this website. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, investment advice or a recommendation to transact. Information presented may be sourced from product providers, brochures, fact sheets, official websites, publicly available information and industry publications. Product features, premiums, rewards, benefits, fees, rules and terms may change over time. Information is believed to be accurate at the date of publication. Clients should verify all information directly with the relevant product provider, insurer, investment manager, administrator or service provider and obtain personalised advice before making any decision.

Note: Market values can rise or fall, and past performance is not a guarantee of future outcomes.