Penny Lovell joined Sanlam in 2017 from Close Brothers, brought on board to build up the South African company’s HNW business for families in the UK.
The biggest non-banking financial institution in Africa, Sanlam is listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange and has an international reputation, with £45 billion of AUM globally and 100 years in the business.
Winning new clients is hard work. ‘Anyone who tells you otherwise is not telling the truth,’ says Lovell, who has been at it for 30 years. ‘But the reception has been so warm and so positive and we have started winning some really significant large family mandates.’
The fundamentals of wealth management don’t change, says Lovell. ‘There is a lot of talk about millennials and baby boomers and everybody having different needs, but generally the needs of people are pretty consistent: we need to understand what we’re investing in and we need to be sensible, however wealthy we are, about protecting our wealth and thinking about how were going to support our families when we retire.’
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Lovell has enjoyed the rise of philanthropy and impact investment, citing ‘coaching and encouraging clients to think more about philanthropy’ as a highlight of her career.
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