Sanlam launches financial solutions for professional people

Sanlam has launched Sanlam Cobalt for Professionals - a portfolio of financial solutions for employed and self-employed professionals.

Jacques de Villiers (pictured right), Senior Manager: Special Projects at Sanlam says the professional segment is an attractive market segment for Sanlam. There are currently 295 000 professionals in South Africa, of whom 80% are salary earners.

He explains that Sanlam Cobalt for Professionals is the result of extensive market research into the financial needs and requirements of professional people. The solution has been designed to match Sanlam’s strategy of focusing on the needs of clients - in this instance, the needs of professional people.

“Our research indicated a strong need amongst professionals for knowledgeable people to review their financial portfolios. Many professional people are unaware of the risks that they and their dependants are exposed to in the event of sickness, death or trauma. Moreover, many don’t realise the extent to which they need to provide in order to requirements to provide retire comfortably.”

De Villiers says Sanlam Cobalt for Professionals offers a dual approach to identify client needs:

• To correctly identify and analyse the status of the personal financial needs of the professional person, Sanlam developed a comprehensive personal financial fitness analysis, with the results captured and summarised in an individual report.
• For the self-employed professional, this process has been expanded to offer a business fitness assessment and report.

These tools are available through Sanlam Cobalt for Professionals accredited intermediaries.

The new Sanlam Cobalt for Professionals solution for employed individuals covers risk, wealth creation and wealth preservation needs, with broader business support. services and solutions for employees added for self-employed professionals.

The risk cover component includes life, disability, dread disease and accident cover as well as health-care solutions for employed professionals. For self-employed professionals, solutions are also available to address the risks of their employees as well as business insurance needs.

De Villiers explains that Sanlam’s research also revealed the need to deliver a sickness benefit solution, which pays out when a person is booked off work, regardless of whether that causes a loss of income.

This benefit has some unique competitive advantages, including premium distinction between genders as well as between smokers and non-smokers. He says the sickness benefit has been developed as a stand-alone benefit, and can be combined with other benefits as part of a customised and tax-efficient financial package for the professional.

The wealth creation solution contained in Sanlam Cobalt for Professionals offers investment options such as unit trusts, linked products, managed portfolios, investment plans and retirement annuities.

In addition to risk cover and wealth creation for the individual, Sanlam Cobalt for Professionals provides support services to self-employed professionals, including estate planning, help with legal matters and accounting; as well as providing access to financing and IT solutions. De Villiers says that if required, umbrella fund solutions for employees can be obtained from the wider range of Sanlam solutions.

De Villiers recommends that professional people use the services of an accredited Sanlam financial adviser or broker to help them review their financial portfolios to ensure that all their individual and business related needs are covered.