Nzwa Shoniwa, Managing Executive of Sanlam Umbrella Solutions
By the end of March, at the very start of the 2026/2027 tax year, Sanlam had already received over 75 000 two-pot withdrawal applications, to the value of R1.2 billion. That points to a problem that runs deeper than fund members’ access to their retirement savings. It signals the deep financial pressures many South African retirement fund members are under, with many making long-term financial decisions while in short-term survival mode.
It also highlights the importance of accessible financial advice, amplified by technology and delivered early in the retirement journey.
The financial strain behind those withdrawals extends far beyond a single statistic. The 2025 Sanlam Benchmark Survey found that 44% of retirement fund members have dipped into their emergency savings simply to stay afloat. The same survey showed that many still turn to Google and other online sources for financial guidance, while 44% of respondents believe that nine years or less before retirement is early enough to begin planning for retirement.
Taken together, these findings reveal that many people are seeking guidance too late in their retirement journey.
This picture is also emerging in places the industry has not traditionally measured. Nzwa Shoniwa, Managing Executive of Sanlam Umbrella Solutions, confirms that the 2026 Sanlam Benchmark Survey, which is currently in the field, will for the first time include a dedicated section tracking how many umbrella retirement fund members have used their two-pot savings to fund gambling.
That is a signal worth pausing on. Shoniwa notes that the gambling activity already visible in the industry appears to sit “at the back of financial stress”, pointing to a troubling cycle in which indebtedness, emergency withdrawals and escalating gambling may be compounding the very retirement shortfall the two-pot system was designed to help cushion. What began as a liquidity reform is now beginning to reveal a set of behavioural pressures the industry can no longer afford to dismiss as fringe concerns.
The advice gap at the point of decision
Shoniwa frames the challenge not simply as an education issue, but as an intervention issue in practice. Fund members do not make retirement decisions in dispassionate, theoretical conditions. They make them while stretched, distracted, indebted, uncertain, or while trying to solve immediate problems. In that environment, generic communication may be accurate, but it can still arrive too late or be too broad to influence behaviour.
That tension was reflected in the 2025 Sanlam Benchmark Survey, which showed that more than 90% of fund members said it was important to receive educational information about their retirement benefits.
Yet Shoniwa is clear that information on its own is not enough. He argues that the industry’s traditional one-size-fits-all approach has reached its limit. “We’ve spent a lot of time with generic communication across our entire employer base,” he says. “Where we need to go, from a communication perspective, is targeted communication, not only from an age or salary-band perspective, but even from a type-of-employer perspective, in partnership with intermediaries.”
When information starts to sound like advice
These themes came into sharper focus at Sanlam Corporate’s recent Leaders’ Breakfast, where panellists stressed the importance of member behaviour and the limits of broad communication in high-pressure moments.
Anna Siwiak, Head of Product Development for Sanlam Umbrella Solutions, warned that the line between information and advice is already beginning to blur. She described an experiment she’d conducted. Using ChatGPT, she posed as an average retirement fund member seeking advice. She entered her savings and target retirement income, then asked whether she was on track, and probed further on which investment portfolio she should be in.
Siwiak’s conclusion was double-edged: the tool was surprisingly capable… but that was precisely the concern. “ChatGPT is not FAIS-accredited,” she says. “It’s not going to be held responsible when you then follow its advice. There’s absolutely nothing built in there to safeguard our members.”
From awareness to intervention
The retirement industry has already invested heavily in education, awareness campaigns, digital access and improved communication. But fund member behaviour suggests that information alone is not enough – not unless it is delivered in a way that is personal, timely and responsive to the realities members are facing.
That is where the next phase of the retirement conversation may need to shift: from broad literacy efforts to more targeted interventions that meet people in moments of decision. Throughout the Leaders’ Breakfast, Sanlam Corporate speakers returned to the need for more personalised engagement and more human support – amplified, not replaced, by technology.
Ashley Singh, Chief Information Officer for Employee Benefits and Health at Sanlam Corporate, says: “AI and tech cannot replace the human element. That warm touch and warm advice are still needed. However, the packaging and quality of that advice can be superimposed exponentially with AI and technology. Imagine a world where advice on health and retirement is presented holistically, where your background, your health conditions and your financial circumstances are understood, and where the options presented to you are truly personalised. That’s where the industry is heading: better advice and better outcomes for members.”
A more realistic industry question
The real question now is not whether South Africans understand that their retirement matters. It is whether the retirement industry is structured to help people protect their long-term financial outcomes when the present keeps demanding relief.
As the two-pot system continues to shape the behaviour of retirement fund members, the industry is confronting a hard truth: financial education remains essential, but without timely intervention and accessible advice at the moment of choice, it may be arriving one step too late.
ENDS
