A bright future for Sanlam

CEO Jonathan Polin explains why Sanlam’s recent acquisition by Oaktree Capital means a bright future for clients

Wealthsmiths: Jonathan, what was behind the decision to sell Sanlam’s UK wealth and financial planning business? Jonathan Polin: Following a strategic review of its global businesses, the Sanlam Group took the decision to refocus its efforts on Africa and other emerging markets. It is already the number one insurer in its home market of South Africa and is the largest non-banking financial services business in wider Africa. There is a huge amount of growth to be had there but it is also a highly competitive market. So, the decision was about refocusing growth on those core markets, though the UK asset management business will be retained. W: Can you tell us a bit about Oaktree Capital? JP: Oaktree has a reputation for investing in and growing high-quality business. It knows the wealth management sector well, having acquired financial planning firm Ascot Lloyd in 2012. Outside of wealth management businesses, it has also supported the growth of a number of highstreet names including Ritz-Carlton, Fitness First and Countrywide Estates. Like other global investors, Oaktree likes the robustness of wealth businesses; we have deep relationships with our clients and carefully manage their investments to a long-term time horizon. I think that Covid-19 proved that wealth businesses were highly resilient in challenging market conditions. W: You’ve agreed to stay on as CEO. What has inspired you to do this? JP: What was important to me when I came to make my own personal decision was that we’ve done a huge amount here to rebuild and regenerate the business and we have brought a lot of great people in from other businesses.

I thought that if I stayed, I could keep our team together and ensure that our clients wouldn’t see the sort of upheaval that you sometimes see when companies

merge and different systems and everything else is introduced. W: Can you share your vision for the future? JP: One of the things I had been looking at was setting up my own FinTech business to create a truly digital wealth service. I want to build a business that takes advantage of new digital technology while still providing “The way we a highly personalised service. Oaktree is now supporting this vision to bring in this put our clients technology-driven solution to give our clients first will never that complete and compelling experience. Clients will use it to different extents, but change” they will have a much wider range of digital functionality. For example, we will offer open banking for those clients who want to be able to access all their accounts and credit cards in one place. All of these finances will be available on our platform, to complement our core financial planning and wealth management services, which clients will continue to enjoy. If a client chooses, they will be able to see everything from their current and savings accounts to their investments and loans, so they get a fully informed picture of their wealth in one place. This is about where we see the future of financial planning and investment advice. We want to enable clients to get a more complete, transparent picture of their finances, rather than looking at a single part of their life. W: Will we see any changes to the investment offering? JP: We want to be much more dynamic in terms of delivering environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment choices and ensuring that our business itself is ESG compliant. I’d really like to see all of our clients have portfolios where they can not only see the performance of their investments but would also have demonstrable proof that they are investing for the benefit of society. Moving to ESG investments is something that can be done by degrees, however, so there is no need to change

Jonathan Polin, CEO, Wealth Management

investment strategies overnight. It might be possible to, for example, hold a portfolio where 40% of investments have very strong ESG scores, while some clients will want a fully ESG-led portfolio. It’s about providing choice. W: When will you finally separate from the Sanlam parent company? JP: We hope the change of control will happen at the end of the first quarter of next year. W: Any hints on the brand identity? When we actually get change of control, our name will still be Sanlam because our own branding will not be finalised by then. We will have a licence from Sanlam to use its brand for six months. So, I think by the end of the second quarter of next year we will be able to unveil our exciting new name and branding. W: What lessons have you learned from Covid? JP: I think we’ve confirmed what I’ve always believed – that our clients are far more tech-savvy than many believed. We switched to Teams and Zoom meetings quite seamlessly as we went through the first lockdown, and we found that many people prefer it because it’s both efficient and enables them to have a face-to-face conversation with their portfolio manager or financial planner. W: Do you have any final message for clients? JP: Yes, I really want to thank them for being with us and interacting with us all the way through the pandemic. Our name may be changing, the look and feel of the business may be changing, and we hope to make real improvements in service delivery, but the way we put our clients first will never change. n