First for retirement fund industry from Sanlam Employee Benefits
to benefit financial services professionals and government

Cape Town, July 2009:

To provide more transparent access to a wealth of information about the country’s evolving retirement landscape, Sanlam Employee Benefits (SEB) today unveiled a free Web application to view and analyse the results of its BENCHMARK Survey. Now in its 29th year, the internationally respected survey – considered the most comprehensive of its kind in South Africa’s retirement fund industry – provides relevant statistics and insights into the management of pension, provident and umbrella funds, as well as the views of retirement fund members. Intended primarily for South Africa’s financial services professionals and government departments, the Web application is also a valuable research tool for all employers and those in the employee benefits industry.

Available on www.sanlambenchmark.co.za, the easy-to-use application provides access to the survey results from the past four years and the ability to compare and contrast the various findings. Registration on the site is a simple process and no special software is required to run the application other than an Internet browser.

Users can analyse the BENCHMARK survey statistics according to various categories on the site, including:
o Fund type: stand-alone, umbrella or member
o Year: 2006 to 2009 for stand-alone and 2009 for umbrella funds
o Individual questions

All the data can also be e-mailed or exported into other applications for use in, for example, presentations. Traditionally packaged as a printed booklet, the BENCHMARK Survey results are used extensively by industry professionals, regulators and policy makers as a valuable reference document.

Less paper, more access
“The main idea behind the Web application is to provide more people direct access to the results, as well as reduce the amount of paper we use to publish the BENCHMARK results,” says Dawie de Villiers. “With the application, results are no longer pages of static data to page through. They’re now dynamically presented in a very transparent way for all to see and explore.”

Other features on the site include:
o Several HOT OPTIONS keys offering the most common cross tabs for quick analysis of similar questions from the past four years.
o The ability to cross-tabulate different questions
o A dynamic help section with definitions of industry-related terminology.

Feedback and fund member research
Beyond the statistics about South Africa’s retirement fund industry, the BENCHMARK website also includes the option for users to pose questions that will be answered by SEB representatives, as well as access to research conducted among retirement fund members.

“User feedback will give us a better understanding of how the survey results are being utilised and allow us to improve the survey next year and try to cater to different needs,” adds de Villiers.

All the BENCHMARK research reports may also be downloaded as pdf documents from www.sanlambenchmark.co.za.

Ends.

About the 2009 BENCHMARK Survey
The 2009 BENCHMARK Survey was conducted by the independent market research consultancy BDRC. The industry portion of the research took the form of face-to-face interviews with principal officers representing 200 retirement funds and 100 employer representatives of umbrella funds. A random sample of respondents was selected to reflect the South African retirement fund landscape, including small (less than 100 members), medium (100 - 500 members), large (501 - 5000 members) and very large funds (5001+ members). Industry respondents included pension (31 percent) and provident funds (58 percent) structured on a defined contribution basis, as well as participating employers in umbrella funds. The member survey of the research involved telephone interviews conducted during April and May this year with 600 retirement fund members (59.7 percent in pension funds, 24.8 percent in provident funds and 13.8 percent a hybrid of the two).

About Sanlam Employee Benefits
Sanlam Employee Benefits specialises in the provision of risk, investment and administration services to institutions and retirement funds. Focused on meeting the unique needs of its diverse clients, SEB assists companies create and deliver customised employee benefits solutions, including the collection of premiums and communication to fund members. For more information, please visit www.seb.co.za.