Sanlam review 2024

Sanlam, a South African financial services conglomerate founded in 1918, has grown into a global financial powerhouse with operations spanning across numerous nations. In addition to its strong presence in South Africa, Sanlam operates in Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, India, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. Moreover, it has established operations in the United States, the Philippines, Lesotho, and Burundi.

One of Sanlam’s notable investments is its stake in Micro-Ensure Holdings Limited, which serves over 10 million customers and maintains a significant presence across Africa. In 2018, Sanlam’s acquisition of SAHAM finances propelled it to become the largest non-banking financial firm, expanding its reach into West Africa and the Middle East.

Presently, Sanlam boasts revenues exceeding R148 billion and total assets surpassing R900 billion. Its revenue streams come from offering a diverse range of financial services, including insurance, asset and wealth management, investments, and various other financial products.

A brief history of Sanlam Ltd

Sanlam Ltd originated as a subsidiary of Santam, registered on 8 June 1918. The name “Sanlam” is derived from the Afrikaans words “Suid-Afrikaanse Nasionale Lewens Assuransie Maatskappij Beperk,” translating to “South African National Life Assurance Company Limited” in English.

From its inception, Sanlam demonstrated remarkable growth, achieving profitability and declaring bonuses within its first year—an uncommon feat in business. Over time, it evolved into a substantial company.

In 1954, Sanlam transitioned into an independent mutual life assurance company and became the largest single shareholder in Santam, which focused on short-term insurance. This move solidified Sanlam’s stature, overshadowing Santam in size.

Subsequently, Sanlam shifted its focus from traditional insurance to offering a diverse range of financial products and services. By 1998, it had demutualized and was listed on the JSE and Namibian stock exchange, transforming into a public company.

Today, Sanlam is a multinational corporation with interests spanning across 5 continents. It maintains a presence in 33 African countries, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Australia.

Furthermore, Sanlam has prioritized increasing black ownership, with direct black ownership rising to 18% and black economic ownership reaching 35%. This commitment reflects Sanlam’s dedication to diversity and inclusion within its operations.

Sanlam limited board and executives

Name	Title	Company/Role
Paul Brendan Hanratty	Chief Executive Officer	Sanlam Ltd
Abigail Mukhuba	Finance Director	Sanlam Ltd
Mlondolozi Mahlangeni “Lotz”	CRO/Chief Actuary	Sanlam Ltd
Mariska Oosthuizen	Chief Marketing Officer	Sanlam Ltd
Riaan Van Dyk	CEO: Sanlam Fintech	Sanlam Ltd
Anton Gildenhuys	CEO: SA Retail Affluent	Sanlam Ltd
Bongani Madikiza	CEO: SA Retail Mass	Sanlam Ltd
Tavaziva Madzinga	CEO: Santam Limited	Sanlam Ltd
Kanyisa Mkhize	CEO: Sanlam Corporate	Sanlam Ltd
Carl Roothman	CEO: Sanlam Investment Group	Sanlam Ltd
Heinie C Werth	CEO: SanlamAllianz	Sanlam Ltd
Theo Mabaso	Group CIO: Group Exco	Sanlam Ltd
Sana-Ullah Bray	Exec: Human Capital	Sanlam Ltd
Karl X T Socikwa	Exec: Market Development	Sanlam Ltd
Grant Davids	Head: Investor Relations	Sanlam Ltd
Temba Irvine Mvusi	–	Sanlam Ltd
Dr Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe	–	Confederation of African Football
Sipho Abednego Nkosi	–	Sanlam Ltd
Anton Dirk Botha	–	Nimbula Inc
Willem Van Biljon	–	Sanlam Ltd
Dr Johan Van Zyl	–	African Rainbow Capital Pty Ltd
S Thembisa Dingaan	–	Sanlam Ltd
Elias Masilela	–	Sanlam Ltd
Jacobus P Moller “Kobus”	–	Sanlam Ltd
Prof Dr Shirley Anne Zinn	–	Sanlam Ltd
Nicolaas Kruger	–	Momentum Metropolitan Holdings
Karabo Tshailane Nondumo	–	Sanlam Ltd
Ebenezer Ngea Essoka “Ebby”	–	Sanlam Ltd
Mathukana G Mokoka	–	Sanlam Ltd
Andrew Birrell	–	Universal Partners Ltd
Ndivhuwo Manyonga	–	Sanlam Ltd

Services and Products offered by Sanlam ltd

Sanlam offers multiple services and products for personal, businesses and corporates. Services include but are not limited to insurance, retirement, assets and wealth management, financial planning, investments etc. We will look at the services and products offered by the group.

Personal services

Personal insurance

Sanlam offers life insurance that covers personal and family needs. Insurance covers offered cover dependents, should death occur and a funeral cover to cover a burial of a loved one. You can get a quote online or via a call to speed the application process. Also, you get access to expert advice at no cost to assist you to get insured.

There is also a medical insurance facility for you and your family. Sanlam has partnered with Bonitas and Fedhealth medical schemes to provide you with a range of choice. Medical insurance premiums start from R298 per month.

You can get short term insurance that covers you for what you actually need. Insurance includes building, household, car and all-risk insurance. Sanlam helps with reviewing your short term insurance needs and makes sure you are ensured accordingly and pay for what you need.

With Sanlam gap cover insurance, your medical bill is cleared should your medical aid fail to pay the whole medical bill. Cover starts from R200 per month for individuals and R352 per month for families. You get to benefit from in-hospital and out-of-hospital benefits such as emergency casualty benefit, permanent disability, etc.

Go cover insurance, covers for accidental injuries and death. You can get this insurance cover as and when you need it. The cover can last between 24 hours to 90 days. This insurance covers up to R1,000,000.00.

Personal financial planning services

Sanlam has a wide range of financial planners. You can choose a planner that understands your finances. These are also tied financial planners who are hired by Sanlam to give advice on Sanlam products and services.

They include BlueStar financial planners who specialise in a specific financial trade and help clients with estate planning, retirement planning etc and Independent financial planners who are independent of Sanlam and sell a variety of companies’ products and services.

Financial planners are available to help with the writing of wills, Trusts and setting up Estates. This will help you in creating Estate administration when deceased and ensuring that a Trust is managed by someone you find responsible.

You can access a life coach who will help you with your finances and your credit profile. This will help in giving a boost to your credit profile or making sure that it is always good through knowledge and expert guidance.

Sanlam offers personal loans up to R200,000.00. This loan can be easily accessed with the help of a financial advisor, who will ensure that you go about the application process correctly. The advisor will help with accessing your credit profile and will assess if you are in the right financial state to apply for loans.

On the Sanlam website, you can make use of the needs assessment tool that will guide you in building wealth. This is a self-help tool that can be utilized by anyone at no cost.

Retirement

Individuals can save for retirement through Sanlam by saving regularly or by making a one-off payment. This can be done by investing in an interest yielding savings account or through stipulated annuities that can be cash out after retirement.

There is an option to ensure that you don’t cash out your retirement savings before the due date. This is called a preservation fund which helps you secure your retirement dreams. The fund yields annual interest and continues to grow.

You can save your money today by putting away a portion of your money for retirement. Sanlam has an annuity option for those with a consistent income to save for retirement. Annuities are paid by Sanlam on a monthly basis upon retirement.

Sanlam retirement fund encourages employees and employers to contribute together towards employee retirement. With this fund, you are able to add beneficiaries. Beneficiaries are taken care of should you pass on.

Personal investments

Sanlam provides an investment platform for individuals who want to invest with the help of a financial planner. One can invest in Unit trusts and other investment opportunities. Investment plans are tailor-made for you to meet some or all of your financial needs.

You can also invest offshore with Sanlam international investments. One can do this to spread the investment risk or to create a diverse portfolio. Benefits include protection against rand depreciation, microeconomic risks, investing in opportunities not found in South Africa etc.

Sanlam allows for investment for yourself or children to be able to go to school. Sanlam’s goal manager can be used to ensure that your educational goals are met with consideration to inflation, lump sum and other factors affecting your goal.

With the education calculator, you can anticipate how much your investment in education will yield providing different circumstances.

Sanlam has an online share trading facility called Sanlam iTrade Online. One can invest in shares using this platform. Through the platform, you get access to daily market reports, stockbroker forecasts, data on every listed share, ETFs, alerts and stop-loss orders etc.

With tax-free savings, one can invest from as little as R350 per month. This account doesn’t charge taxes, however, there are restrictions to adhere to. Lifetime contributions are up to R36,000.00 per month and lifetime contributions are limited to R500,000.00. These funds can be accessed at any point.

Sanlam unit trusts give you access to top financial managers to help you with your investment in unit trusts. You can invest in either tax-free unit trusts or standard unit trusts. Investment is not limited to South African blue-chip stocks but can also invest offshore using this facility.

Personal Wealth

Sanlam private wealth offers high net clients with personalised services. These services include wealth and portfolio management, stockbroking and taxation services. According to Businessday, Sanlam’s private wealth was voted top wealth management company.

Glacier by Sanlam brings experts and financial services companies to offer expansive range of wealth management services. These services include insurance, financial planning, retirement and investments to high net individuals.

Business services

Small and medium enterprises services

The Sanlam buy and sell solution helps small business when a member passes on. The company helps by assisting surviving partners with cash to buy the deceased shareholding.

This is because the deceased survivors may not want to be part of the Business or the remaining partners may not have adequate finances to buy back deceased shareholding leaving the company exposed.

Business debt insurance helps with the financial well-being of a company if a partner has signed a surety then dies or become disabled. The business takes insurance that pays out should one of the owners die or become disabled. This prevents creditors from demanding payments of the loan by the deceased estate or disabled owner.

Sanlam provides keyman insurance to ensure business owners are well-off should one of them die or get disabled. As financial security it can help a business with replacement costs.

Business can insure with Sanlam to protect company assets, business overheads, credit loan and debt loan. The insurance premiums vary from one cover to another.

The Sanlam employee wellbeing gives business owners a platform to ensure the well-being of its employees and retirement.

Corporate services

Payment and debit order collections

Sanlam Multi data has over 50 years of managing cashflow. This feature offers secure payment and debit order services to assist businesses to manage their cashflows through a web system. It’s an end to end process that collects money from debtors via debit order.

Multi data make collections and payments easy. You can pay salaries by having an adequate amount of cash in your Sanlam account. All stated payments are made as and when due. Collections are also auctioned using a debit order request when due with debicheck verification.

Insurance services to corporates

Sanlam offers insurance that helps employers protect their employees. This product helps to ensure employees and protect their families in the event of long illness or death. Group risk benefits such as life insurance, group accident insurance, disability protection insurance and group critical illness.

Corporates can get a medical scheme for its employees. Insurance provides competitive healthcare solutions. Custom offers are available taking into account the needs of the employees’ health. For example, if the company employs mine workers then cover for cardiac arrest, TB etc will be higher.

Corporate retirement services

Sanlam offer services in retirement fund administration, savings and post-retirement planning. This is to ensure that company employees are well-off beyond employment.

Sanlam shareholders

The table below only includes companies with a shareholding of 1% or more in Sanlam Ltd

Conclusion

Sanlam has timelessly proven itself to be a big international player since it became public. With acquisitions around the world, the company has cemented itself as an international player.