![]() ![]() Sentinel prides itself on the industry leading governance structures and reporting mechanisms it has put in place over many years. Our focus on total cost has resulted in the costs to members and pensioners remaining significantly lower than competing funds, which grows the investment fund pool and ultimately the value of benefits paid to members, pensioners and beneficiaries. The Fund invests in value-adding infrastructure such as advanced IT and member communication systems. We, therefore, work continuously on behalf of our stakeholders to manage administration and investment management costs effectively. The Fund is service rather than profit driven. We exist for our members, pensioners and beneficiaries. We offer a highly competitive fee structure and our database technology can handle large or small employers with equal proficiency. Sentinel is guided by the same non-profit principle that characterised the mutual societies that thrived in South Africa until the 1990s. Currently Sentinel has a policy of utilising the full allocation of investments the Fund is allowed to make offshore and in Africa. Based on 59 investment mandates vested in 33 selected investment managers, we diversified beyond the traditional local and offshore asset classes to also include private equity, hedge funds and unlisted property as these alternative assets are expected to deliver real net returns in excess of the returns provided by traditional asset classes. Over many years Sentinel has developed a robust model to fit the risk profiles of the differing investment portfolios for members and pensioners. We constantly monitor the performance of these investment managers and regularly conduct face-to-face appraisals with them. The Fund outsources its investment manager function, enabling us to continually select from specialist professionals that best fit the investment strategy. Sentinel’s investment model, founded on well-managed risk mitigation principles and long-term return expectations from a widely diversified portfolio of South African and offshore assets, that spreads risk across numerous asset classes remains the safest approach for engaging unpredictable and uncertain markets. It is gratifying to note that given the huge levels of volatility and uncertainty experienced over the past year, that all of the Sentinel life-stage portfolios and the pensioner portfolio were able to deliver positive returns net of asset management and administration costs. This has presented extraordinary challenges to the Board of Trustees, Board committees and management. Sentinel too has experienced the pressure of these uncertain conditions, the toughest and most challenging in some years. ![]() The attractiveness of South Africa as a stable emerging market investment destination has suffered as a result of these factors and the poor financial performance and turmoil surrounding a number of state-owned enterprises. The impact of increased political uncertainty and low economic growth led to the resultant downgrading, by all major credit agencies, of South Africa’s credit rating which weighed heavily on domestic investment market volatility.Ī strengthening rand reversed and the currency gains seen over a number of months were wiped out over a very short period. The year has been characterised by extreme domestic market uncertainty coupled to a highly volatile South African rand. This statement held true for the year under review as the South African economy slowed even further and entered into a technical recession. Continued uncertainty with regard to the implementation of retirement reform, originally intended for 1 March 2016, remained a major factor impacting this.Ĭonsistently excellent investment returnsĪs stated in our 2016 joint leadership review, South African and world markets have been volatile since 2008, and are expected to remain so for the foreseeable future. Sentinel continued to make progress on all the strategic objectives outlined in the previous year, but was again unable to substantially grow the Fund’s membership base. The year under review has again been a challenging one, to say the least, yet overall performance achieved reflects the effects of prudent and innovative structures put in place over a number of years to minimise the impact of poor performing investment markets and to protect capital. ![]() Scenarios.” Sentinel 2016 joint leadership review We have longĪccepted the realities of our investment environment and haveĮvolved a long-term strategy to invest prudently within all ![]() Political shifts, both locally and internationally. Numerous market swings – from boom to bust – and dramatic Our members and pensioners for 70 years and has weathered “Sentinel has been investing and managing funds on behalf of Leadership review Joint review by the Chairman of the ![]()
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