It was a bold step for Sanlam CEO Paul Hanratty to exit asset management, one of the life office’s primary activities. Investment is a core business for life insurers. Good investment returns make core products such as unit trust and endowment policies more competitive in both the retail and pension fund market.

But Sanlam Investment Management (SIM), as its direct asset manager is called, has been a perennial underperformer. The Alexforbes Large Manager Watch is the survey that asset consultants watch most closely. Over seven years SIM’s balanced portfolio has been last out of the nine big balanced pension fund managers with an annualised 7.9% return, against 9.7% from Ninety One, which will now take over these mandates...

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