Sanlam Wealth’s chief executive has defended this year’s acquisitions and subsequent restructuring, which saw swathes of advisers cut, which it deemed necessary to build a solid foundation for future growth.
Official documents seen by FTAdviser confirm that adviser numbers have dropped from 93 to 81, with most coming from the Rhyl and the North West offices, following the shake-up.
In July the Sanlam Group refreshed its global brand, with Sanlam Private Wealth UK changing to Sanlam Wealth Planning UK, while Sanlam Distribution, Sanlam Life and Pensions and Sanlam Wealth Planning UK started trading simply as Sanlam.
The same goes for English Mutual, which was purchased by Sanlam in 2012, with chief executive Alex Morley taking up the same position under the Sanlam brand, taking over from Nigel Speirs as part of the February shake-up, which also saw the merged firm’s graduate trainee scheme ditched.
In 2008 Sanlam took a 60 per cent stake in Rhyl-based adviser Buckles, which rebranded in 2011.
Mr Morley told FTAdviser that the merger was not without its difficulties, but the firm now has a new Bristol head office and a united brand.
“We’ve gone through quite a lot of client segmentation, we’ve released some advisers who don’t embrace our culture, so it’s about characteristics for us, we’re a big business so the adviser’s not our client, it’s about wanting advisers that are an integral part of the fabric of the business, so they have to have certain characteristics.
“It doesn't mean that people who don’t have those characteristics aren’t good advisers, they’re just not our type of adviser really.”
Mr Morley explained that with the head office now in Bristol, the Welsh office has now joined Worcester and London as a regional branch.
“Any bringing together of two businesses that have strong identities has to be done carefully, I’m not saying it was easy, but I think we are in a really good place. It’s too easy to fill a business with another adviser that’s going to come with some client and do a job, we have to make sure we have the right people so we can then grow it.”
He explained that the business was now planning to “absorb” a few more smaller advisory firms, taking on advisers as well as their back books.
“We’re now looking at organisations where we can acquire the advisers and the clients within the business, because I believe we have the infrastructure to be able to cope with that. We want to grow in a very controlled way though, nice steady little steps on good foundations.”
In terms of Sanlam Wealth’s structure, there is a centralised investment proposition managed on a whole of market basis by discretionary fund managers within the group.
“We also use our own technology, because we use our own portal, so in effect that makes us a restricted proposition.
“But I don’t think the client thinks that they are restricted to only a few products and solutions because I’m seeing a Sanlam adviser, I think it’s the opposite, we’re much more in control of our destiny than what we were, as just an agent of lots of individual companies handing out money to various different DFMs,” explained Mr Morley.
He stated that the firm was comfortable with this way of doing business, as was the regulator.
“We’ve taken a lot of external advice, we design our solutions and then typically pay people quite a lot of money to hopefully confirm we’ve got it right, or tell us how to get it right.
“We’re very transparent with our clients, everything’s on one brand, so I don’t know what’s so restricted about offering a DFM service that’s selecting stocks from the whole of market.”
Mr Morley added that along with looking to acquire more firms, Sanlam is also replacing its two legacy back office systems with new technology in the New Year.
peter.walker@ft.com
