New Sanlam Trust CE: Re-engineering Sanlam Trust in becoming the fiduciary service provider of choice for the South African intermediary

Ronald Samuels.

The fiduciary business within Sanlam Personal Finance, Sanlam Trust, is celebrating its 20th year. The business has new leadership in place and an invigorated business model aimed at helping intermediaries offer fiduciary services and products to clients.

New Chief Executive, Ronald Samuels, took over the business in January and is strongly focused on the re-engineering of the business in Phase 1 to realise the vision of becoming the fiduciary service provider of choice for the South African intermediary.

Samuels holds a postgraduate diploma in management practice obtained at the Universities of Melbourne and UCT. He joined Sanlam in 2000 and held various senior management positions across the Group, including Regional General Manager: Sanlam Financial Advisers, General Manager: Sanlam Employee Benefits, Managing Director FinQ Financial Services (member of the Sanlam Group) and General Manager: Broker Division. This former military man (Samuels was part or a selected few military personnel who worked with various Ministers of Defense in Parliament in the early 90’s) talks about his industry, Sanlam Trust and the running of his guest and olive farm on weekends.

What do you think when you hear the words ‘let’s have a coffee’?

That an exciting opportunity is coming my way. I’m not sure why, but for some reason every one of my big career moves started with a phone call asking me for a casual coffee. I’m certainly not complaining – every career move so far has represented me with an amazing challenge and the opportunity to have worked with come world class teams.

What is your plan for Sanlam Trust?

My plan is a simple one – to build a robust, sustainable domestic business in Phase 1 that has the intermediary at the heart of everything we do. We are completely re-engineering the way the business is structured by moving from a federal model and largely silo …… business to an existing model where we are building an integrated zero defect back office or factory. Our trust company has a huge competitive advantage in South Africa due to the fact that we have one of the world’s most successful distribution forces. Very few competitors have the same advantage and we believe we can only harness this or take full advantage of this if over time we build our integrated zero defect back office. Once we achieved this and demonstrate to our intermediaries that we consistently deliver on our zero defect promise, we will become an even greater force to be reckon with in the SA Context. The zero defect factory will ensure that we can introduce integrated systems. It will furthermore allow us to create an existing career path for our administrators thereby ensuring a multi skilled team over time. It also allows us to find efficiencies which we could not do in the previous model. The one thing that I have learned of the years is that none of the above will happen without the right people on the bus. We are bringing on board exceptional talent – such as our newly appointed Chief Operating Officer, Advocate Sankie Morata, whom is also the current chairman of the Financial Planning Institute and Melanie Louw, our newly appointed Sales Manager whom has many years of industry experience to back her remarkable qualifications in the fiduciary space. Those ae only two of the exceptional people we have on our executive team.

How important is fiduciary planning in a financial adviser’s offering?

In my opinion, if you, as an intermediary, assist your client with comprehensive financial advice it would be a gross oversight not to ensure that fiduciary planning is taken into account. Fiduciary services will assist intermediaries in planning their clients’ wills and trusts which are very important components of an overall estate plan.

What is your ‘take’ on leadership and running a successful business?

For me, a profitable business rests firmly on strong leadership whom has the ability to create a shared vision and a clear understanding of why you are in business. If you get these two things right, the rest will flow.

What do you do in your spare time?

Every second weekend is spent on my olive farm – Olive Grove Guest Farm – near Beaufort West. It is a little oasis on the N1 – a guesthouse, 5 500 olive trees, and our own line of bottled olives and olive oil. We also do game drives. I run this farm just like I run my ‘day job’ businesses – keeping a tight handle on things, but empowering management and staff to put their stamp on the place too. You should check it out next time you drive to Jozi!