Yolanda Gwili says attendees should look forward to learning more about SA's most awarded umbrella fund.
With over 3,000 attendees, close to 50 exhibitors and numerous knowledge-sharing sessions, the inaugural HR Indaba was arguably a resounding success. In this article, Yolanda Gwili, an executive consultant at Sanlam Corporate, talks about the Sanlam Umbrella Fund and why they are looking forward to sharing their thoughts on the future of the retirement funding at the Indaba.
1 Why have you signed up as a partner at the HR Indaba?
In the context of epidemic levels of financial stress at the workplace, HR professionals can play a critical role in supporting people to live their best possible lives through enabling financial resilience and prosperity. We have explored this concept at great detail and wish to share our findings on the symptoms, causes and solutions to the pervasive issue of financial stress. A well-constructed employee benefits suite can be the mechanism to address many of the driving factors of financial stress and we wish to engage HR professionals on the key factors required to do so.
With that said, we are interested in creating more awareness for the Sanlam Umbrella Fund, which is the embodiment of Sanlam’s vision of the future of the retirement funding in corporate South Africa combining the best of Sanlam’s breadth and depth of intellectual property to provide a complete value chain engineered to create and protect wealth for your employees.
2 What is the Sanlam Umbrella fund?
An umbrella fund is a retirement fund which multiple and unrelated employers may join as opposed to a single fund established for one employer only (i.e. a stand-alone fund). Aside from the retirement savings element, insured benefits can be included as part of the package. An umbrella fund pools the contributions of various employers and members in one fund and the greater number of participants allows for cost savings and for delivering true value to the umbrella fund members. An umbrella fund is governed as a single legal entity overseen by a professional board of trustees. This has the advantage that professionals are accountable for ensuring the umbrella fund’s governance complies with all legislation.
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The Sanlam Umbrella Fund is South Africa’s fastest-growing and most-awarded umbrella fund due to the considered blend of technological innovation and human touch that builds lasting relationships. This year been voted by independent Employee Benefits consultants to be the umbrella fund most capable of enabling financial resilience for its members.
We hope attendees of the HR Indaba will engage with our team to explore why South Africa’s employers are looking to the Sanlam Umbrella Fund to be their preferred partner in enabling the financial resilience and prosperity for their employees.
3 What makes the Sanlam Umbrella Fund so different from other retirement savings options?
We are committed to optimising the experience of employers and their employees within the Sanlam Umbrella Fund through a considered blend of technological innovation and human touch. Our suite of FinTech solutions reduce the time and effort required by HR professionals to manage their fund operations with support from a national network specialist. Members have access to a range of online tools and services ranging from the Sanlam MyRetirement App to Retirement Benefits Counsellors to guide them on their retirement funding journey.
4 What would you say is the biggest challenge facing the HR profession?
South Africa’s employees experience epidemic levels of financial stress and the HR profession can play a material role to enable financial resilience to enhance mental and physical health as well as improving productivity at the workplace. Doing so takes the time, energy and initiative to review existing structures in order to implement optimised and holistic employee benefits solutions. This is often a challenge and authentic partnership is often required to facilitate such a process.
