It was said back in 2009 that commercial umbrella funds needed to grow to the magic number of 1.6m members. At this level they would be able to spread their fixed costs and investment infrastructure, and charges should start coming down. That level was reached this year. Old Mutual’s SuperFund is the largest umbrella fund in SA, adding a few giant employers such as Anglo Platinum, which give it more than 372,000 members and assets of R91bn. Another big player is the R62bn Alexander Forbes fund, with 277,000 members. In fact almost all of the 1.6m are in five funds, with Momentum, Liberty and Sanlam making up the balance. These groups have business interests well beyond employee benefits. They can pool many infrastructure and IT costs groupwide and pass these on to clients. I see that David Gluckman, who reads speeches on behalf of Sanlam, had one of the most eagerly awaited papers at the recent Actuarial Society convention. This at a time when the elephant in the room is Sygnia head...
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