Financial resilience is the order of the day
In November 2018, Dawie de Villiers left Sanlam EB to join Alexander Forbes. He was replaced by Jocelyn Hathaway who is the Acting CEO of Sanlam EB.
The changing of the guard happened at a crucial time in the employee benefits industry, the final date for Default Regulation compliance was months away and Sanlam EB was on the precipice of launching its post retirement advice offering.
In an exclusive interview with FAnews, Hathaway shared her vision for Sanlam EB as well as her overview of the current state of the retirement savings industry. Advisers are central to this vision and will always play an important role in the future of the company.
What do you hope to achieve as the CEO of Sanlam EB?
Working with my team, Sanlam EB hopes to make a difference to the financial resilience of the fund members, intermediaries and employers who have partnered with us.
We strive to move beyond the lip service which is often paid to improving the lives of thousands of South Africans who our industry serves. We have over the last few years established firm foundations and a formidable team which I aim to continue to build upon and support to ensure that we continue to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients and intermediaries.
This means we need to be introspective and brutally honest with ourselves about where we can improve. I strive to courageously lead this continuous process of evolution in our business so that we remain relevant to our many stakeholders.
What are some of the different challenges that you will face in your new role?
I have held a few different roles in Sanlam since joining in 2011, from leading the retirement fund administration business to being responsible for finance, operations and governance for the Sanlam Corporate Cluster.
My current role as Acting CEO for Sanlam Employee Benefits requires me to access my market engagement skills which require some dusting off having been running internal functions for the last couple of years. I am immensely enjoying engaging with clients and intermediaries as this allows me to stay in touch with their real needs. It also allows me to obtain feedback on a regular basis on how they experience our offerings and to benefit from their infinite wisdom on how we can improve.
A key challenge for all financial services businesses is keeping pace with the continuous rate of change, regulatory and otherwise, and Sanlam EB is no exception.
What is your current opinion regarding the state of the EB environment in South Africa?
It is sad that, despite the immense effort which goes into educating the public about the need to save for retirement, there are still hundreds of thousands of South Africans who simply cannot afford to retire.
This is an indictment on the industry and highlights the need to do more to educate employers, funds and members about what they can do to improve outcomes in retirement. The shift to Umbrella Funds should ultimately assist with this as employers seek standardisation and packaged solutions that deliver across the retirement funding value chain.
I believe that the EB industry is perfectly positioned to make a huge difference in the lives of many South Africans, to improve their financial outcomes before, at and after retirement and we are continuously looking to improve how we do so.
How can companies be innovative in this space while still demonstrating value?
We believe the starting point is to listen to stakeholders.
The annual Sanlam Benchmark survey provides us with substantial insights into how our stakeholders would like to see us improve; this is something which actively feeds into our innovation processes relating to products and services.
We do think that technology and thought leadership is key. We have been on a digital transformation journey over the last few years. Our digital tools enable advisers, employers and individuals to have unprecedented access to empowering information which should ultimately equip them with the information they need to make the best decisions possible regarding the retirement funding and risk solutions.
We are also at the forefront of developing innovative savings and protection solutions which address a variety of needs in unique ways.
What role do financial advisers play in your model? What value to they offer the industry?
Advisers form the cornerstone of our model and play many roles in delivering on our shared purpose of enabling financial resilience.
From advising funds and employers on their benefits structures, investments and choice of service providers to engaging individual members to guide them to making the best possible decisions, advice is crucial.
Sanlam Benchmark research has previously found that members who receive advice tend to have better outcomes than those who do not demonstrate the value provided by high quality advisers to actual individuals. Advisers are the trusted interface between us as a service provider and clients.
To show value in the future, advisers will need to evaluate providers on emerging factors such as resilience to cybercrime, quality of retirement benefits counselling, value provided by default solutions amongst many other factors. Our position is that we are actively empowering advisors with products, portals and technology to equip them to best deliver high quality financial advice to our shared clients. Partnerships evolve and we are committed to successfully partnering with advisers into the future.
Editor’s Thoughts:
Leadership can either make or break a company. At a time when clients need their insurers to thrive in order to retire comfortably, the challenges that leaders such as Hathaway face will determine the future of the industry. Please comment below, interact with us on Twitter at @fanews_online or email me your thoughts [email protected].
