Sanlam to build sales culture and adopt big bank approach

‘It’s going to get bigger,’ he said.

Rigorous demands

While he agrees that the FSA’s more rigorous suitability demands are positive on the whole, he has found that some clients perceive the increased levels of disclosure expected of them as intrusive.

‘I think it has helped crystallise the setting of risk guidelines but a lot of the information that you ask for, clients see it almost as an intrusion,’ he said. ‘You send out the paper with all the questions you are required to ask but clients don’t necessarily want to disclose that information to us.’

Sanlam bought Principal Investment in 2008 but only last year decided to rebrand the business to the Sanlam name, at the same time merging Principal with Merchant Securities.

The move Massey believes will add ‘credibility and mass’ to the Principal brand.

‘Bringing in a name like Sanlam to the UK and to this business, I think is very positive. Although it’s not well known in the UK per se, if people want to engage with you and start making enquiries about your business they’ll look at Sanlam and its history and see it’s a sizeable business.’