Each year brings about change. In the 1st edition of our Newsletter we focus our attention on the past in order to respond, as a business, to the future in order to stay relevant.
Budget 2019: Impact on the retirement fund industry and members
Although Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s 2019 Budget did not introduce significant changes relating to the retirement fund industry, the effect of the ‘belt-tightening’ measures implemented should be taken into consideration by all retirement fund members.
Annual salary increases will likely result in many individuals moving into higher tax brackets and finding themselves being taxed significantly more as a result, and retirement fund members may wish to explore possibilities to counter the effect of it.
To read Sanlam’s commentary by Anton Swanepoel, Manager: SEB Legal, click here.
2018: Policyholder Protection Rules (PPR’s)
In 2018, insurance legislative changes to the PPR’s came into effect. From a group risk insurer’s perspective, the most impactful changes relate to data requirements, direct member communication and policy termination & replacement. We have in recent articles discussed the effects, as well as the implementation, of relevant measures with regard to the policyholder.
Over and above the communication requirement for the insurer to keep the policyholder (fund/scheme) informed, the PPR’s also places a responsibility on the insurer to ensure direct communication takes place with members of schemes, in order to facilitate fair treatment.
Traditionally members of schemes may have been far removed from their group risk benefits, other than when they needed to claim for an insured benefit. The PPR’s require policyholders to provide very specific data to their group risk insurer to be able to facilitate direct communication – this data needs to include, over and above the name & surname, identity number and other group insurance-related information, also the contact details, i.e. the e-mail address and mobile number of every member of a scheme, and where contact details are not available, the member’s address details are required.
Sanlam will be launching specific digital initiatives during the next year that will enhance our product offering to members of schemes and policyholders and include digital enhancements to our claims submission process and direct access to online member benefit statements.
Providing Sanlam Group Risk with the member information on a monthly basis is of great importance to enable us to underwrite your scheme and implement the digital initiatives effectively, resulting in both the policyholder and the members of the schemes benefiting from the direct communication initiatives.
To view a summary of the recent legislative changes, click here.