How We Conduct Our Research

Our research takes current economic realities into account and relies on ‘best practice’ diagnostic tools to model solutions for the future benefit of all South African retirees. Every year we observe the financial impact of socio-economic conditions on the living standards of members and retirees.

For this reason our research includes a combination of qualitative and quantitative fieldwork:

• The 2017 Sanlam Benchmark™ research process began in 2016 by consulting with stakeholders of the retirement funding industry to get a broad view of the issues driving member outcomes.
• Stakeholders included employers, funds, consultants, media as well as leading experts within Sanlam. Their feedback was consolidated and distilled to a number of key hypotheses to be tested that informed the content of the 2017 Sanlam Benchmark™ research.
• In particular, we expanded the breadth of the research aimed at individual consumers of financial services to better understand the drivers of financial wellness amongst individuals.
• We also interviewed employee benefits consultants, as key enablers of better retirement outcomes, to gain an understanding of their views of the changing dynamics of the formal retirement funding sector.

The Sanlam Benchmark™ Survey does not profess to have the answers to the savings and retirement dilemma which faces most South Africans. It does however, provide a tool to ask the right questions and start the debate on how to align benefits provided by funds with the individual needs of members in a highly litigious environment crippled by high levels of unemployment and low savings behaviour.