I invested in a retirement annuity with Sanlam in approximately 2002. At the time, for a period of approximately 14 months, I contributed R3500 a month. This amounts to R49 000 in total over a period of 14 months. At this stage I had no more income, and the R3500 per month contribution had to stop, and Sanlam was duly notified of this.
In approximately 2008 I requested to withdraw the funds of the RA. I was duly told by Sanlam that the amount in the fund is R12 000. Yes, you read that right. From R49 000, down to R12 000 - after investing for 7 odd years with Sanlam, in their RA.
After requesting an explanation (which takes 3 weeks to get a response), I am no more clearer on what happened. I assume that Sanlam wishes to claim that the rest of the capital (more than R40 000) went towards "fees".
I will be opening up a case with the Banking Ombudsman regarding this issue, and I will be writing to every newspaper I can find, regarding this daylight. Furthermore, it appears that Sanlam only allows you to query the status of your RA via email - and take 3 weeks to respond, to attempts to "shield" themselves from customers such as myself.
Sanlam - your response?
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