Car insurer
Old Mutual Insure
Old Mutual Insure has the longest institutional history of any insurer in this comparison series, tracing back to 14 March 1831 and the founding of the South African Fire and Life Assurance Company in Cape Town,
1831
Established
Formerly
Mutual & Federal
Old Mutual Limited
Owners
Underwrites
Pineapple
Old mutual insure
South Africa’s first short-term insurer. After nearly two centuries and several name changes, most recognisably as Mutual & Federal, the business rebranded to Old Mutual Insure on 5 June 2017, having been wholly owned by Old Mutual since 2010. It sells personal and commercial short-term insurance through both brokers and direct channels, and is also the underwriting muscle behind the digital insurtech Pineapple. Old Mutual Insure is regularly reported as the insurer with the highest absolute number of complaints to South Africa’s insurance ombud, a headline that needs real context: its complaint rate per 1,000 claims is moderate, not the industry’s worst, and the ombud itself has repeatedly said that a large, long-established insurer will always generate more raw complaints without that meaning its claims are handled any worse.
What you will learn
- The genuinely long history behind Old Mutual Insure, going back to 1831
- How Mutual & Federal became Old Mutual Insure, and when
- What Old Mutual Insure covers, and its connection to Pineapple and Iwyze
- Why Old Mutual Insure tops “most complaints” headlines, and what that actually means
- What is and isn’t independently rated about Old Mutual Insure’s financial strength
- Who Old Mutual Insure suits, and who might want to compare further
194 Years of History: From 1831 to Old Mutual Insure
Old Mutual Insure’s story begins on 14 March 1831, when British-born Thomas Le Breton convinced a group of prominent Cape Town citizens to invest in the South African Fire and Life Assurance Company, the first indigenous South African insurance company. Its life assurance business was placed into run-off in 1881, and the company continued trading as South Africa’s first short-term insurer. After trading profitably for over 60 years, the company was acquired in 1894 by the UK’s London & Lancashire Fire Company, though it kept trading under its own name.
A former South African Fire and Life director, Robert Brydone, left to found a separate company in the Transvaal, the Federal Insurance Corporation, which he later sold back to London & Lancashire in 1911, again continuing to trade under its own Federal name into the late 1960s. London & Lancashire was itself absorbed by the UK’s Royal Insurance Group in 1962. When South Africa became a republic in the 1960s, the government required foreign insurers’ local branches to register as South African companies and list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. This led, in 1970, to Royal Group’s South African businesses merging with Old Mutual’s own short-term insurer, SA Mutual Fire & General Insurance Company, forming a new entity named Mutual & Federal, combining the “Mutual” of Old Mutual’s heritage with the “Federal” name from Brydone’s original company.
In 2010, Old Mutual acquired the Royal Insurance Company’s remaining shares in Mutual & Federal, making it wholly owned for the first time. On 5 June 2017, following a rebrand announced that March, Mutual & Federal became Old Mutual Insure, aligning the short-term insurance brand with the wider Old Mutual name. The underlying legal entity and its registration did not change through the rebrand. Counting from the 1831 founding of its earliest forerunner, Old Mutual Insure represents 194 years of continuous institutional history under various names, making it the oldest insurer covered in this comparison series.
Ownership and Products
Old Mutual Insure is wholly owned by Old Mutual Limited, one of Africa’s largest financial services groups, listed on the JSE with a secondary listing in London. Old Mutual Limited itself traces its own roots back to 1845, and operates through several segments, including Old Mutual Insure, alongside personal finance, wealth management, investments, and corporate insurance businesses across South Africa and the wider continent. Old Mutual Insure offers a full range of personal and commercial short-term insurance, motor, home, and business cover, sold through independent brokers as well as direct channels, including its own direct brand, Iwyze. Old Mutual Insure is also the underwriting entity behind the digital insurtech Pineapple, via a related company, Old Mutual Alternative Risk Transfer Insure Limited, giving the wider Old Mutual short-term insurance business exposure to both traditional broker-led distribution and a fully digital, app-first insurer.
“Most Complained About”: What the Numbers Actually Show
Old Mutual Insure has been reported as having the highest absolute number of complaints lodged with South Africa’s insurance ombud in multiple recent annual reports, a headline figure that gets repeated without much context. The more analytically useful number is the complaint rate, complaints per 1,000 claims received, which adjusts for the size of an insurer’s book. On that measure, Moonstone Information Refinery’s analysis of the Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance’s 2023 annual report put Old Mutual’s complaint rate at 4.740 per 1,000 claims, an improvement on 5.863 per 1,000 in 2022, and a moderate figure, far from the industry’s worst ratio. It’s also worth noting that the published statistics for Old Mutual Insure include those for Iwyze, its direct brand, so the combined figures reflect two brands’ worth of business rather than one.
The ombud itself has repeatedly cautioned against drawing conclusions from raw complaint counts alone. Larger, more established insurers issue proportionately more policies, which mechanically produces a higher absolute number of complaints even when the underlying complaint rate is unremarkable. Prospective Old Mutual Insure customers should read “most complained about” headlines with that specific context in mind, rather than at face value, and weigh the moderate, size-adjusted complaint rate more heavily than the raw count.
Financial Strength: What Is and Isn’t Independently Rated
This review did not find a standalone public credit rating specifically for Old Mutual Insure, the South African short-term insurance entity, from AM Best or GCR Ratings. Searches did surface GCR ratings for related but distinct Old Mutual group entities in other markets and business lines, including Old Mutual Insurance Company (Private) Limited in Zimbabwe, rated AA(ZW), and Old Mutual General Insurance Kenya Limited, rated A-(KE), as well as a rating for Old Mutual’s separate South African life assurance business. None of these ratings apply to Old Mutual Insure itself, and this review has not conflated them. What is verifiable is the scale of the parent group: Old Mutual Limited is a JSE-listed financial services group managing around R1 trillion in assets, giving Old Mutual Insure a very large, well capitalised parent even without a standalone published rating of its own on record.
AA(ZW)
Old Mutual Zimbabwe (separate entity)
A-(KE)
Old Mutual Kenya (separate entity)
Not SA rating found
Old Mutual Insure itself
~R1 trillion
Old Mutual Limited AUM
Claims Reliability and recognition
On claims reliability, the more recent and more telling story sits in Old Mutual Insure’s own financial results rather than the ombud data alone. Its claims ratio fell from 57% in 2023 to 49.7% in 2024, its insurance service result swung from a R63 million loss in 2023 to a R643 million profit, and its net underwriting margin recovered from a near-breakeven 0.3% in 2023 to 6.2% in 2024 and 6.8% in 2025, comfortably inside its own 5% to 8% target range. The company attributes this to more disciplined underwriting and pricing, plus investment in technology and data analytics to manage claims costs and reduce fraud and claims leakage. In the first quarter of 2026, severe flooding in Limpopo and Mpumalanga didn’t produce material net losses for the business, a reasonable real-world stress test of that improved discipline.
On recognition, it’s worth being precise about which part of the group is actually being honoured. Old Mutual was named Long-Term Insurer of the Year at the News24 Business Awards in both 2024 and 2025, but that belongs to Old Mutual’s life assurance business, a separate entity, and I found no equivalent short-term insurer of the year title for Old Mutual Insure itself. What it does have is a long-running, named partnership with South Africa’s Car of the Year competition, running since 1986 and renewed for 2025, plus its own Intermediary Awards programme for brokers. Lower-profile than an outright award win, but real, sustained engagement with the two audiences that actually matter to the business.
I nearly cited the News24 award as Old Mutual Insure’s own, since it’s the most prominent “Old Mutual + insurer of the year” search result out there. Checked the award category specifically, and it’s the life business, not the short-term insurer this page is about, so I kept them separate rather than borrowing recognition that belongs to a different entity in the group.
Is Old Mutual Insure Right for You?
Old Mutual Insure suits buyers who want the reassurance of dealing with one of South Africa’s oldest and most established insurance names, backed by the scale of the Old Mutual group, whether through a broker relationship or its direct Iwyze channel. Its long institutional history and full commercial and personal lines range make it a reasonable, broad-based choice, particularly for buyers who value broker access alongside a direct option. Buyers who have specifically seen “most complaints” headlines and want reassurance should weigh the moderate, size-adjusted complaint rate against the much larger raw count. Those specifically wanting a fully app-based, digital-only experience from the same underlying financial backing may prefer Pineapple, which Old Mutual Insure underwrites directly.
Is Old Mutual Insure a good car insurance company in South Africa?
Old Mutual Insure has the longest institutional history of any insurer in South Africa, tracing back to 1831. Its complaint rate per 1,000 claims, 4.740 in the 2023 ombud report, is a moderate figure, not the industry’s worst, despite headlines about its high absolute complaint count.
Is Old Mutual Insure the same as Mutual & Federal?
Why does Old Mutual Insure have so many complaints?
Who owns Old Mutual Insure?
What is the connection between Old Mutual Insure and Pineapple?
Does Old Mutual Insure have its own credit rating?
Has Old Mutual Insure's claims performance actually improved?
Has Old Mutual Insure won any insurer of the year awards?
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