Sanlam Insurance

Sanlam Insurance is a household name in South Africa, as it is not only an insurance company, but also an all-round financial services giant. It has a long history, going back to 1918, and is listed on the JSE Limited in South Africa. The company`s life insurance group consists of Sanlam Personal Finance and Sanlam Employee Benefits. The former offers life insurance for individuals, as well as personal financial products and services. The latter offers life insurance, annuities and investment products for group schemes. Santam is the name of its short-term insurance group, and it is reputedly the foremost short-term insurance entity in the country.

There are two distinct product clusters within Sanlam Insurance. There are those for individuals and those for businesses. Here`s a quick list of the personal products: car and household insurance, asset management, educational planning, unit trusts, estates and wills, risk cover, personal loans, investment portfolio management, retirement, home loans, savings and investments, trusts, affordable stock market investment packages, multi manager investment and structured guaranteed solutions.

There are similar products and more for businesses, but let`s concentrate on the insurance aspect of Sanlam`s business. It is one of the most used short-term insurers around, through its wholly-owned subsidiary of Santam - the company of the famous yellow umbrella. Its National Insurer Financial Strength rating has just been upgraded to AA+. 95% of its insurance products are sold via brokers, with a network of over 7 500.

The Sanlam group takes a very active role in the area of CSI (Corporate Social Investment). It has taken BEE responsibilities fully on board along with allied transformational aspects like its Ubuntu-Botho transaction in 2004 that strengthened the group`s standing in the transformation stakes. It focuses a lot of its CSI investment in the spheres of HIV/AIDS, education, social development and economic development.