Evolutionary Awards 2025 – Alexforbes: evolutions in improving individual & member outcomes (retirement funds & individuals)

Category: Evolutions in improving individual & member outcomes

Describe your evolution:

Insight + Advice = Greatest Impact

What if? It’s a deceptively simple question. Yet it has the power to challenge the status quo and unlock new futures. What if every retirement fund member — regardless of age, income or wealth — had the superpower to change their financial journey? That superpower already exists and it’s called financial advice.

Research by Momentum and the Bureau of Market Research shows that households working with financial advisers have 9.5 times more investments than those who don’t. Multiple studies confirm that financial advice improves investment returns, encourages long-term discipline, and leads to significantly better retirement outcomes. There is no more powerful lever to transform financial lives than access to quality, professional advice. And yet, in South Africa, only 9% of households work with a professional adviser. This staggering gap isn’t due to rejection of advice — most members either don’t know how to access it, don’t realise it’s for them, or feel too intimidated to ask. These are some of the most common reasons members give:

• “I don’t know where to start.”
• “I thought advice was only for when you’re in trouble.”
• “I’m embarrassed to ask for help.” 
• “Isn’t financial advice only for the wealthy?”

The recently released 2025 Sanlam retirement fund survey echoes this. It reveals that:

• 64% of members say regular financial education is “very important”
• Only 11% of members had access to a financial adviser at withdrawal
• Nearly 50% rely on Google for financial advice
• Most only seek advice within 9 years of retirement
• 49% are unaware of their post-retirement options These are not just statistics.

They are warning signs — symptoms of a system that has not evolved to serve its members meaningfully. As Sanlam noted: “We’re seeing people make life-altering financial decisions without the information, support or advice they need. But the right intervention at the right moment can shift outcomes.”

Turning Insight into Action: The Alexforbes Approach

At Alexforbes, we believe that financial advice is a superpower — and it should belong to everyone. We’ve operationalised this belief by building an integrated, scalable and human-centric advice ecosystem that ensures every retirement fund member can access real advice, real education and real support — not just the privileged few.

Accessible Professional Advice at Scale

• Every member can access accredited, personalised financial advice via invest.alexforbes.com/advice — regardless of income, age or life stage.
• Our national network of 280+ human financial advisers is mapped to our institutional client footprint, ensuring contextual advice aligned to fund rules and member demographics.
• We serve over 60,000 individual clients with more than R111 billion in assets under advice.
• We are a Top 3 retail IFA business in South Africa — with 95% client satisfaction sustained year-on-year.

Pioneering Digital Advice Platforms

Our fully digital advice platform delivers real, actionable guidance across retirement annuities, living annuities, offshore investing and goal-based savings. It supports members not just to invest — but to stay invested through automated advice at key milestones.

• 86% of clients who follow the advice reach their chosen investment goals.

Relevant, Timely Member Communications

• Contextual nudges are delivered via WhatsApp, email and workplace channels at key life stages — onboarding, exits, preservation and retirement.
• Members are directed to decision-relevant education and professional support at the moment it matters most.

Contextual Financial Education – Delivered at the Point of Impact

• We’ve moved beyond generic education to moment-based learning — practical, scenario-driven content that empowers members at the exact point of decision.
• Delivered through pre-retirement seminars, workplace sessions, digital journeys, and WhatsApp engagement.

Digitally Guided Exits for a Post-Two-Pot World

Our retirement benefit exit platform offers a digitally guided, advice-rich process that allows members to: •

• Understand their retirement, savings and vested pots
• Receive customised counselling on withdrawal, preservation or annuitisation options
• Make informed, supported decisions — all while reducing the burden on HR teams

The Greatest Impact is Measured in Changed Lives

At Alexforbes, we don’t just talk about financial advice as a right. We’ve embedded it across our ecosystem — physical and digital — and made it available to over 1 million retirement fund members, enabling life-changing decisions at scale. Because the true measure of innovation is not the idea. It’s the impact.

By transforming access to advice, we’re not just changing financial outcomes — we’re restoring confidence, reducing anxiety, and helping South Africans retire with dignity. That’s not just evolution. That’s revolution. And that’s why we believe Alexforbes delivers the Greatest Impact.

Describe the impact your evolution has had in response to its identified challenges and targeted outcomes.

Financial advice is the biggest gamechanger available to deliver retirement security and prosperity. Alexforbes financial advice is now available to over 1 million retirement fund members to transform their financial journeys. 

• Over 60,000 people are already recipients of our financial advice
• Our advisors have a 95% Customer Satisfaction Score
• Our digital advice platform takes 86% of users to their selected investment destination
• We engaged over 450,000 members digitally between April 24 – Mar 25
• We conducted over 600 in person financial wellness days at employers in this period

This evolution (revolution?) will have an impact on our members, now and into the future. But, watch this space, as other providers will have to make advice available as well. Meaning, that even more people will benefit over time.