[4] Established in 1918 as a life insurance company,[5] Sanlam Group has developed into a diversified financial services business.

The group operates in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe,[7] Mauritius, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Mozambique, India, Malaysia and the UK, and has business interests in the US, Australia, Burundi,[8] Lesotho and the Philippines.

It has a stake in micro-insurance specialists, UK-based Micro-Ensure Holdings Limited, which has a footprint across Africa[9] and India servicing more than 10 million enrolled clients.

Its 2018 acquisition of SAHAM Finances has made it Africa’s biggest non-banking financial services[10] player and has given it exposure to Morocco, Angola, Algeria, Tunisia, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

The group has consistently grown its local as well as an international footprint – it now has a presence in 33 African countries[11] also India, Malaysia, the UK and Ireland, the USA, Australia and the Philippines.

[15][16] Sanlam has since 1993 contributed to broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) through the group’s partnership with Ubuntu-Botho Investments.

The Group will sell 5% of its issued shares to new and existing B-BBEE shareholders, creating a master trust that caters to 80% of the intended beneficiaries, with Ubuntu-Botho benefitting from the other 20%.

In November 2015 Sanlam announced that the group had agreed to buy a 30 percent stake in Morocco-based Saham Finances, which operates in 26 countries predominantly across Africa with a presence in the Middle East.

[35] In February 2023, Capital Legacy and Sanlam announced that they would be joining forces by creating an even more compelling wills, estates and trusts business together.