Dreams, by their very definition, are not reality, but they have the potential to shape a person’s future reality. Unlocking financial success is not only possible, but it also becomes probable when it starts with expert financial advice. This is why advisers have always been – and will always be – an integral part of Momentum’s business. It’s also why the best-of-the-best advisers work with us. And anyone who doesn’t, really should!
Only when you understand advice, do you understand its value
Hannes van den Berg says that only an adviser with the expertise to offer a truly personalised journey to success can provide great advice. No-one is the same, and no journey follows the same path to achieving one’s financial dreams.
We believe advice should be:
- Tailored to everyone to create healthy financial habits and a positive mindset towards money.
- Recommended by experienced, trained professionals, informed by the most up-to-date information and offering the best products, solutions and services for every need.
- Empowering and inspiring to meet each client’s long-term goals.
- Ethical, without an emotional bias and based on the best interests of every client.
- Results-oriented with meaningful outcomes and progress that can be measured.
- Continuous through long-term one-on-one relationships that evolve and grow.
An adviser offers a holistic approach to financial planning by considering all aspects of a client’s life and financial circumstances before advising on a financial plan. We offer the full spectrum of solutions and services for every stage of a client’s life, from cradle to grave, with the security of dealing with any unexpected challenges. We offer credibility, transparency and a clear fiduciary role in creating trust.
Design simplified and impactful client experiences
Jeanette Marais says, “We are committed to building long-lasting relationships based on trust, transparency and excellence. We believe that behind every event, every transaction and every decision, there is a human being with hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations, and a unique story that is unfolding.
“We understand that money is not just about numbers but about emotions. So, giving advice is more than just about, for example, providing people with medical cover. What we do, makes people feel healthy. It’s not about giving people comprehensive insurance either; it’s about making them feel safe. It’s not about offering investment options and products, but about making people feel prepared. And it’s not about selling life insurance; it’s about making people and their families feel secure.”
One of the ways in which Momentum strives to humanise what we offer clients is through simplicity. It is our strategic objective to design simplified and impactful client experiences.
In today’s complex financial landscape and in an era where consumers are inundated with options and information, simplicity stands out as a beacon of clarity. By simplifying our offerings, we reduce complexity for clients, making it easier for them to understand and engage with our solutions, services and advisers.
In an industry like ours, where trust is paramount, complex solutions and services can lead to confusion and distrust. By driving simplicity and embracing advice, we, as a business, are enabled to be more efficient and stay agile and responsive to changing market dynamics and our client needs.
She says, “We also aim to enable our advisers to understand and anticipate the evolving needs of our clients, leading to solutions, service and advice that drive real value. For this, we focus on using technology and data analytics to offer insights and recommendations tailored to our clients’ needs. At the same time, these solutions enhance the human touch and drive real value for our advisers – creating a strong, positive outcome for clients and advisers.”
Crucially, more than 90% of our payouts are made possible by financial advisers
Positioning the value of advice is critical to the growth of our industry
Van den Berg says that advisers, as entrepreneurs, operate in the world of finance as the bridge between financial services institutions and ordinary households and businesses. To play this connecting role in an ever-evolving, complex environment, advisers are required to be equipped with a myriad of skills and a solid understanding of the law, economics, finance and human behaviour.
Advisers contribute to economic growth and employment, playing a vital role in household wealth accumulation, ensuring that more South Africans can afford to retire with dignity and live their financial dreams while protecting their most important assets and growing their wealth.
As our industry is still largely advised, this wealth accumulation would not have been possible without financial advisers.
In the 2023 calendar year, Momentum alone paid R210-billion to clients in the form of claims and annuities. To put this in context, the Reserve Bank statistics show that gross household income from all sources amounted to R6.2 trillion in 2023. Of this,
R1.9 trillion is income received from business, dividends, interest, rent, insurance and annuity receipts. That means our pay-outs to clients generated an income equal to 11% of non-salary and grant income. Crucially, more than 90% of our payouts were made possible by financial advisers. Put differently, advisers contribute massively to building and protecting our clients’ financial dreams – and helping us, as Momentum, to live our purpose.
At the same time, it is well known that most of the population can’t afford to save, invest or insure. This means they are largely excluded from accumulating wealth through insurance and investments. Statistics from SARS and Stats SA indicate that only 6.2 million people contributed to a pension or retirement product in 2023. This equates to only 25% of the labour force, or 27% of all households, providing for their retirement through pension funds and retirement annuities. And we know that only a small minority of those who are providing for retirement, provide enough.
Our estimates from the Momentum/Unisa Household Financial Wellness Index indicate that around 750 000 households earning more than R30 000 per month (gross household income) do not provide for retirement. Our estimates also show that about one million households with an income exceeding R30 000 per month do not have any life insurance.
As an industry, we need to work harder, for a start, to reduce these households’ financial vulnerability and include them in the wealth-building process. We recognise the gaps in financial inclusion, access to financial solutions and services, and use them effectively in South Africa. These underserved segments span various demographics, and our objective is to identify their unmet needs and address them effectively to create financial inclusion and empowerment.
To make this possible, we as insurance and investment companies must grow and support financial advisers so they can assist more households to share in this wealth accumulation.
Only an adviser with the expertise to offer a truly personalized journey to success can provide grat advice.
Enabling financial advice for all South Africans
Van den Berg says, “To make South Africa a more inclusive country, we need to dramatically increase the number of qualified financial advisers. Our Momentum adviser value propositions are tailored to develop and grow experienced and new professional financial advisers.
“By becoming serious about supporting new and experienced financial adviser entrepreneurs, we can assist in propelling significant economic growth.”
Humanity and innovation to serve client needs to empower great financial advice
Danie van den Bergh adds that over a long time, the Momentum brand has established an incredible reputation for innovation.
The development of creative financial products and solutions has been a major focus of this innovation, so it should come as no surprise that
Momentum product solutions have long been acknowledged as the most comprehensive, flexible and competitive in South Africa. At the same time, we were always very focused on developing solutions that would live up to our clients’ expectations.
Because of its emphasis on the needs of the client, Momentum has consistently produced solutions with exceptional features and benefits that have exceeded clients’ and advisers’ expectations.
Van den Bergh says, “In a world where our innovation is product solutions with unique benefits and features built into systems and processes, we realised that the human element plays an important part in such an environment. We are very proud of the culture we created that is described as a brand with a heart. Our employees, partners, clients, advisers and the public experience this when they engage with us.”
This innovation and culture of caring naturally spilt over to the advice side, and we managed to attract many advisers in the industry to both our well-established and successful advice businesses in the group, one being a registered financial adviser (RFA) and the other a product supplier agent (PSA). Given that advisers have always been an integral part of Momentum’s business, our objective is to attract more best-of-breed advisers to work with us.
To attract advisers, we needed to acknowledge and understand the challenges and requirements of advisers and create specific adviser value propositions for different adviser profiles. The following is an abbreviated list of the challenges advisers are facing:
- Complex systems and processes
- Inadequate succession planning
- Limited or no ownership or equity in their practices
- Vested advisers with large client books battle to service all their clients
- New advisers in the industry struggle to find clients
- Lack of adequate technology to manage their practices
- Retention of clients
- Lack of a sense of belonging and recognition
- Growth in income
- Limitation to diversify income
o Limited product solutions on offer by FSP
o The adviser is licensed for limited product solutions
o Specialisation excludes other product solutions.
A game-changing adviser value proposition from Momentum
Van den Bergh says, “We are proud that the adviser value propositions we have created and further enhanced recently, solve the aforesaid challenges and even create new opportunities for growing practices.” Below is the positive impact it has:
Career and personal needs
- Our unique career contract enables advisers to build equity while earning an income with our compelling remuneration model. We encourage our advisers to be entrepreneurial, and therefore we provide advisers with capital assistance to grow their practices.
- Our unique succession planning solution facilitates a positive outcome for an adviser and his complete client book. This is achieved with the assistance of capital regarding events such as death, disability and retirement. We do this for both an existing adviser’s practice and a new adviser joining us as the successor of the existing adviser.
- Our compelling business model diversifies advisers’ income by partnering them with another specialist in a product category that is not their speciality. This enables advisers to ensure that all their clients’ needs are dealt with holistically and that they retain their clients within their practice.
- For us, it is of the utmost importance that the meaningful contributions advisers make to the business and their clients’ lives are celebrated. We formally acknowledge and reward advisers’ achievements.
Practice and office needs
- With the realisation that advisers need cutting-edge technology with increased complexity, we offer one digital workspace with end-to-end processes, integrated advice tools and embedded compliance. The same workspace includes all data and functionality to manage your practice, including selected access for an adviser’s admin staff.
- Within our advice businesses, advisers can tap into a team of experts from different product solutions, legal advisers and practice development managers to offer professional advice to their clients.
- We have a trademarked business development programme and process that enables the adviser to grow a more sustainable advice practice and grow new business.
Client Solutions
We have developed a financial advice framework that follows a robust financial planning model across all major client needs. This advice process is on one platform with integrated tools and embedded compliance.
Our product offerings and solutions are widely regarded as the most comprehensive, competitive and flexible in the South African market. The adviser can reassure their clients that the product solution is always the best of the breed and that the advice methodology used will always secure a perfect match between the client’s needs and the appropriate solution.
At Momentum, advisers are at the centre of building and protecting our clients’ financial dreams!
Advisers who find this proposition compelling can engage with us confidentially by emailing us at advice@momentum.co.za or they can SMS Advice and their name and email address to 3 11 44.
