Background on FAIS

What is FAIS?
Sanlam and FAIS
The objectives of FAIS
How are these objectives being achieved?
What impact does FAIS have on Sanlam's clients?
How do clients benefit from FAIS?

What is FAIS?

FAIS, the  Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, is legislation that impacts on the financial services industry and aims to regulate the giving of advice and rendering of intermediary services to clients, as well as certain other issues.
 
The Act impacts on most financial institutions, financial service providers (such as Sanlam), their representatives (such as advisers, legal consultants and para-planners) and other staff. 

In a nutshell, FAIS ensures that Sanlam protects you, as its clients, by:

• Providing you with trusted and appropriate advice
• Providing you with quality solutions
• Acting with integrity, transparency and a culture of discipline.

Sanlam and FAIS

Sanlam aims to be the most professional financial service provider in South Africa and takes responsibility for the financial advisory and intermediary services rendered to its clients.

It is Sanlam's mission to be the leader in wealth creation by being a client-centric organisation. The legal framework now created by FAIS supports our mission to provide clients with trusted and appropriate advice and quality solutions with integrity, transparency and a culture of discipline.

The objectives of FAIS

The objectives of FAIS are to:

• Protect the clients who use financial services and products
• Protect the financial services industry, and
• Protect intermediaries.

How are the FAIS objectives being achieved?

FAIS requires of Sanlam as a financial service provider to:

• Determine the financial needs of our clients
• Provide appropriate advice to clients after having established the relevant facts
• Assist clients to make informed decisions
• Establish an effective complaints resolution mechanism
• Ensure that intermediaries (Sanlam's financial advisers and Employee Benefit consultants and actuaries) are competent
• Ensure that product providers and Sanlam's intermediaries act with due care and diligence, and in the interests of the client.

What impact does FAIS have on Sanlam's clients?

FAIS requires that Sanlam:

• Provides clients with trusted and appropriate advice and solutions
• Acts with integrity, transparency and a culture of discipline when dealing with clients.

Our representatives are obliged to document advice-related communications concerning financial services rendered to clients.  This impacts on the amount of paperwork required, but ultimately FAIS protects us all.

How do clients benefit from FAIS?

This is how clients benefit from the legislation:

• Protection by means of appropriate and trusted advice, integrity and transparency
• Maintaining high standards
• An effective complaints resolution mechanism
• Protection through the continued existence of the FSP (Sanlam)
• Proper monitoring of advisers', consultants' and actuaries' actions
• Record keeping of advice and communication
• Ensuring that advisers are competent.