The integration of healthcare and financial planning has been a recurring theme in the industry, but in practice, the two have largely remained separate. Sanlam’s latest strategy reflects a renewed attempt to bring these elements closer together within a single advice framework.
Sanlam is moving to position healthcare more explicitly within financial advice, with a new “wealth and health” strategy aimed at integrating medical scheme participation, insurance, and long-term savings into a more unified planning approach.
According to Sanlam, the initiative, expected to unfold over the next 12 months, reflects a shift away from product silos toward a model that links healthcare considerations more directly with broader financial planning.
“It is Sanlam’s objective to simplify and unify financial advice and to provide clients with a genuine all-of-your-life approach to financial planning,” the group said.
In practical terms, the approach is intended to address what Sanlam describes as a common challenge in client portfolios.
“In practice, though, advisors often encounter a disparate collection of policies and investments that have been taken out over years without a complete or holistic assessment,” it said.
The group added that “siloed benefits and lack of integration lead to missed opportunities for early intervention and cost containment”.
This includes healthcare-related products. Sanlam noted that gap cover policies are “currently sold in a way that can be somewhat removed from considerations of medical scheme plans and contributions”, while other health-related products may be taken up “without a thorough review of medical scheme cover, plan level and claims history”.
The strategy therefore centres on aligning decisions across medical scheme membership, risk cover and savings products more closely with a client’s “age, stage of life, children and family circumstances, health status and so on”.
Sanlam said part of this approach includes encouraging earlier participation in healthcare, noting that younger clients should be guided “in terms of getting onto a medical scheme as early as possible”.
Sanlam added that clients face “a plethora of insurance needs and options”, and “should not be left to try to assess and balance out contributions” across these on their own.
Sanlam said it is positioning itself to “be able to advise on the full range of needs each step of the way”, with adjustments made over time as client circumstances change.
“We anticipate that advisors will steadily become further equipped to offer whole-of-life counsel in a strategic and, of course, compliant manner,” it said.
The group said the intention is for “the client [to] have a trusted advisor who is focused on them and their particular needs rather than simply trying to sell a product”.
Data-driven underwriting and product design
A central component of the model is the expanded use of data – particularly the combination of financial services data with healthcare information – to refine risk assessment and product design.
This is enabled through Sanlam’s relationship with Medscheme, which forms part of the group through its shareholding in AfroCentric, the healthcare administration business that houses Medscheme. Medscheme administers 13 schemes, covering around 3.3 million lives.
Sanlam said its approach “leverages data-driven health risk management to tangibly deliver better financial outcomes across our retail and institutional client base”, while noting that “data privacy and consent are a non-negotiable”.
It added that it remains feasible to consider “claims data from the life and savings side along with aggregated health data held by our partner schemes administered by Medscheme”.
“Medical scheme data can be invaluable in understanding risk and pricing various group life and savings vehicles,” the group said, adding that such data can be “anonymised and aggregated to understand an individual’s risk profile in relation to a wider data set”.
Sanlam also pointed to Medscheme’s clinical capability, noting that its expertise underpins “value-based care models which focus on outcomes – did the patient get better – rather than simple fee-for-service models”.
The group said integration of this approach will, over time, “assist Sanlam in risk assessment and underwriting of life, savings and gap cover products, making them more affordable”.
Behavioural incentives and engagement
The strategy also introduces a behavioural component, with Sanlam indicating that incentives will form part of a broader, integrated approach.
It noted that while “many medical schemes offer rewards or incentive schemes that prioritise healthier living”, these are “largely provided in isolation from the actuarial risk assessments that inform life and savings products”.
Sanlam added that “the extent to which different incentive schemes are demonstrably effective remains a matter of some debate”, based on its experience of claims.
Against this backdrop, the group said its broader rewards strategy, expected later this year, “will also adopt a whole-of-life approach that encourages not only taking care of your health but also taking care of your wealth and daily financial behaviour”.
Medscheme’s role
Medscheme is positioned as a central enabler of the strategy.
“Medscheme is pivotal to delivering on this strategy,” Sanlam said, noting that the administrator has been “on the front line of understanding and responding to the ever-changing needs of scheme members”.
The group highlighted the depth of its clinical expertise, stating that it has been “developed over the decades” and “passed from generation to generation of Medscheme’s doctors and other clinical experts”.
This expertise will support the development of “innovative options that make tangible differences to the lives of members”, while also feeding into the advisory process.
Sanlam said its financial advisers will have access to “data and insights that supports them in providing financial advice based on the real lived experiences and circumstances of clients”.
“In due course, members of all schemes administered by Medscheme are expected to have access to these capabilities, subject to any scheme rules or regulatory provisions that may exist,” the Group said.
A gradual shift
Sanlam has framed the initiative as a long-term transition rather than a quick product rollout.
“It must be emphasised that there is not a simple short-term fix to these challenges,” the group said, noting the structural complexity of aligning healthcare, risk, and savings decisions over time.
Instead, the strategy is positioned as a gradual alignment of advice, product structures, and data capabilities over time.
