Corporate Partnerships-Q1-2026

Corporate Partnerships

Issue 1 | 2026

Welcome to our inaugural bi-annual newsletter

Welcome to the first edition of our Corporate Partnerships Newsletter. We’re delighted to launch this new initiative, designed to strengthen engagement, share important updates and keep our intermediary network connected and informed.

It’s hard to believe that we’re already well into the second half of 2026. The year has moved quickly, bringing with it valuable conversations, meaningful collaboration and continued engagement across our intermediary community.

This time of year offers a natural opportunity to reflect on what we’ve achieved together so far, while looking ahead to the opportunities and priorities that will shape the months to come.

Our partnership with independent intermediaries continues to go from strength to strength. The number of supporting intermediaries increased by 35% from 2023 to 2024, followed by a further 69% growth from 2024 to 2025. These results are a testament to the trust our partners place in Alexforbes and to our shared commitment to improving the financial wellbeing of clients and members.

To all our intermediary partners, thank you for your continued support, collaboration and confidence in Alexforbes. We are inspired by your dedication, value the relationships we have built together, and look forward to continuing this journey with you in the months ahead.

In

Strengthening the roles of our sales and servicing teams

Quotation requirements and retirement savings cost disclosure

Alexforbes Investments wins prestigious SA Manager of the Year award

Alexforbes’ assessment framework for South African umbrella funds

Introducing our Partnership Solutions Guide

Global events and your clients’ investments

The latest Alexforbes Mosaic Podcast

Strengthening our service model Separation of sales and servicing roles

Why

are we creating separate

sales

and servicing roles?

As our intermediary partnerships have grown and become more complex, we realised that the old “all things to all people” approach just isn’t cutting it anymore. It’s tough for one person to juggle everything and still deliver the focus, speed and consistency our advice partners deserve. So, we’re splitting sales and servicing into two dedicated roles. This way, each group can focus on what they do best, without anything being compromised.

Our goal is simple: to be more responsive, build stronger relationships and make things clearer for our intermediaries. This approach also ensures clear accountability at every step.

So, why make this change?

Different skills, different focus

Let’s be honest, sales and servicing require totally different mindsets and talents. By separating them, each role can focus on what they do best.

Improved consistency and reliability

With clearer roles, you’ll get a more predictable and reliable experience, every time.

Clear ownership and accountability

You’ll know who to reach out to and what to expect at every stage of your partnership with us.

Better use of specialist expertise

Need something specific? We’ll bring the right experts into the conversation, so you always get the answers you need.

What does each role do ?

Sales – Growth and opportunity

Primary objective: To drive sustainable growth by building strong partnerships with intermediaries.

Business unit: Corporate Partnerships, reporting to Duane Naicker.

Key features:

The sales team: is all about new business, expansion and finding those strategic opportunities connects proactively with intermediaries to discuss solutions, new propositions and making sure products align with your needs

practices growth and creating long term partnership opportunities acts as the commercial and strategic interface between you and Alexforbes makes sure that when a new opportunity pops up, the right specialists are on board onboards new schemes into Alexforbes

One (supported by the servicing team)

How do we know if the sales team is succeeding?

The sales team is judged on the quality and sustainability of the new business they bring in. They are evaluated on the strength and depth of their intermediary relationships. Their ability to develop and convert opportunities in the pipeline is also considered.

Servicing – Delivery and experience

Primary objective: To deliver consistent, reliable and high quality service, every time.

Business unit: Corporate Solutions, reporting to Vincent van Dyk

Key features:

The servicing team: is laser-focused on ongoing servicing and operational delivery onboards new schemes into Alexforbes One (supported by the sales team) handles your day to day queries and requests ensures issues are appropriately addressed and resolved maintains service consistency regardless of product or process brings deep knowledge of our products and processes, and once you’re onboarded, serve as your go-to contact

What does this mean for you, our intermediary partners?

You’ll get faster, more reliable service

Multiple touch points into Alexforbes

You’ll enjoy a more professional and scalable partnership model

Please expect communication from your sales specialist, who will outline what this change entails for you specifically.

How do we measure the servicing team’s success?

The servicing team is measured on turnaround times and service reliability. They are assessed on how quickly they resolve issues and deliver quality outcomes.

Their ability to make your experience easy and satisfying is also considered.

Quotations and Retirement Savings Cost (RSC) Disclosure

To support efficient turnaround times and accurate pricing, intermediaries are required to provide specific client and membership information when requesting an Alexforbes One umbrella fund quotation. This note outlines the ASISA Retirement Savings Cost (RSC) disclosure, what it covers, how it is calculated, and key considerations when comparing RSCs on a like-for-like basis.

Alexforbes Investments named South African Manager of the Year

For over 25 years, Alexforbes has focused on one thing: managing investments with discipline, consistency and strong governance, regardless of what the market brings. This philosophy is at the heart of how we connect with intermediary partners and clients in discretionary fund management (DFM), and it’s something we’re truly passionate about.

And this year, all that dedication and commitment received well-deserved recognition.

So, what does this mean for our independent partners?

This recognition reinforces the depth of our delegated solutions set. Our flagship Performer portfolio, which manages over R300 billion and has delivered CPI + 8% since inception, provides a tangible anchor for the broader range of multimanaged portfolios we manage.

What this means for our DFM partners:

At the 2026 Raging Bull Awards, Alexforbes Investments was named the South African Manager of the Year. On top of that, we won the award for Best South African Interest-bearing Fund on a five-year riskadjusted basis for our AF Superior Yield Unit Trust.

The Raging Bull Awards, now in their 30th year, are seen as the benchmark for excellence in South Africa’s investment sector. What sets these awards apart is their independent assessment recognising long-term consistency and sound risk management, not just recent performance.

Whether you’re leveraging our model portfolios or working with us on bespoke mandates, you get the same disciplined investment process, strong governance and risk oversight across every portfolio. We don’t draw a line between “fund management” and “DFM” — it’s one integrated approach.

In a market where scrutiny of investment decisions continues to increase, this recognition provides independent confirmation that Alexforbes is a DFM partner built for long-term outcomes, not short-term noise.

South Africa’s umbrella funds:

Alexforbes advocates a holistic framework for assessing value

This article reflects a paraphrased summary of insights originally published by Citywire South Africa and is shared for information purposes.

South Africa’s commercial umbrella funds are coming under increasing scrutiny as regulatory oversight from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and National Treasury continues to intensify. Heightened focus on governance standards, cost structures and long-term member outcomes has placed renewed pressure on the industry to clearly demonstrate value. In a follow-up discussion published by Citywire South Africa, Alexforbes shared its perspective on these challenges, responding to concerns that have emerged around structural inefficiencies within the umbrella fund environment. These concerns include governance arrangements that may lack sufficient independence, fee models that obscure true costs and the reality that scale alone has not consistently translated into improved outcomes for members.

Rethinking how value is defined Alexforbes acknowledges many of the structural issues highlighted in the broader industry debate but cautions against evaluating value purely through the narrow lens of fees and short-term performance. Instead, the firm argues for a more comprehensive and forward-looking framework that reflects the full complexity of the retirement journey.

According to Avishal Seeth, a retirement fund executive at Alexforbes, value should be understood in a holistic sense. Retirement saving typically spans several decades, requiring solutions that are not only financially sustainable but also responsive to broader economic, social and environmental considerations over time.

Five pillars at the centre of long-term value

Alexforbes proposes that any credible assessment of value should be anchored around five interconnected outcomes:

Member-centric design, ensuring that funds are structured around members’ real needs, behaviours and decisionmaking patterns.

Long-term strategic thinking, allowing funds to remain resilient across changing economic conditions, inflation cycles and demographic trends.

Robust governance, including capable trustees, effective oversight and the integration of appropriate advice in an increasingly complex investment landscape.

Awareness of societal and environmental impact, recognising that members ultimately retire into the world their savings help to shape.

Clear and meaningful communication, moving away from overly technical reporting towards narratives that support long-term financial wellbeing.

These elements, Seeth emphasises, cannot be considered in isolation. True value emerges from the way performance, governance, costs and member support interact over time. Focusing too heavily on one component at the expense of other risks undermining long-term outcomes. Importantly, Alexforbes rejects the idea of applying a fixed or universal weighting to these factors. Low fees, for example, may erode value if they are not supported by sound governance or an appropriate investment strategy, while strong governance alone may not be sufficient to influence member behaviour without access to advice and support.

Cost transparency in context

While Alexforbes supports the Association for Savings and Investments in South Africa (ASISA) retirement savings cost disclosure standard, it argues that transparency on costs must be viewed within a broader, outcomes-based framework. Costs matter, but they should be assessed alongside governance quality, investment strategy and the level of support provided to members throughout their working lives.

A distinctive element of Alexforbes’ approach is its emphasis on member behaviour and overall wellbeing. The firm notes that decisions made by members, often influenced by financial stress, limited engagement or lack of guidance, can have a greater impact on retirement outcomes than markets or fees alone. Value is enhanced when advice is available at key life stages, digital tools enable better decisions, and funds actively support members’ financial and personal wellbeing.

Source: Citywire

Looking ahead

Turning to the future, Alexforbes highlights the importance of credible, forward-looking projections when assessing retirement outcomes. Ten-year net return forecasts, particularly for default portfolios that include private assets, should be based on robust, independently assured methodologies. These assumptions should draw on a wide body of economic research, such as OECD growth forecasts, combined with informed asset manager insights.

Seeth also challenges current industry reporting practices, describing them as fragmented, backward-looking and overly technical. He calls for more integrated reporting that brings together investment performance, governance, behavioural insights, replacement ratio projections and ESG considerations into a single, coherent value narrative focused on outcomes. By advancing this broader assessment framework, Alexforbes aims to shift the umbrella fund conversation beyond critique towards practical standards that can strengthen member confidence and improve long-term retirement outcomes. While it remains to be seen how widely this thinking will be adopted across the industry, the message is clear: value can no longer be reduced to fees alone.

Partnership solutions

overview

Over the years, Alexforbes has partnered with a network of independent intermediaries, united by a common goal: that knowledge is indeed power. We recognise and honour the invaluable contribution of advice as the bedrock of informed decision-making.

Best advice, top solutions and services elevate client experiences

At the heart of our partnership strategy lies a profound belief in the power of connecting high-quality advice with best-in-class solutions and services that elevate client experiences, promoting more informed and better decisions for both corporate and individual clients. Today, the role of independent intermediaries has never been more vital.

Support at every step

Our commitment to supporting independent intermediaries has only deepened over time. Thanks to long-standing relationships, we have

witnessed many evolving needs and challenges in a dynamic and ever-evolving financial landscape. Our experience engaging with independent intermediaries, or our advice partners as we like to call them, has helped us adapt our offering to continue solving problems, while keeping fees down.

Our solutions, services and support are expanding, here’s a quick guide

As our network of advice partners has continued to expand, so too have the solutions, services and support we offer. This guide illustrates the breadth of these resources. Each element has been specifically curated in the spirit of partnership where you feel in control, confident and secure in your business pursuits.

Global events and your clients

Clients will be asking what the latest Middle East developments mean for markets and their portfolios. This insight moves beyond the headlines to examine the potential implications for oil prices, inflation, interest rates and global growth, while providing a practical framework for navigating uncertainty through a diversified investment approach.

Watch our latest Alexforbes Mosaic Podcast

What do the latest economic and geopolitical developments mean for investors? Join Mandisa Zavala, Head of Asset Allocation, and Mpho Molopyane, Chief Economist, as they discuss the trends shaping markets, explore the potential implications for portfolios, and share insights to help intermediaries navigate uncertainty and support client decision-making with confidence.

Alexforbes Manager Watch™ Survey 2025.

Gain insights from retirement fund investment managers on the economic, technological and regulatory trends shaping the investment landscape in the Alexforbes Manager Watch™ Survey 2025.