STBF SANLAM TRUST BENEFICIARY FUND

Sanlam trust beneficiary services

The service from STBF is appalling. For the past year stbf has been reimbursing me for tuition fees paid for extra lessons to a particular tutor. This month when I made a claim stbf is rejecting it. I'm confused. For 12 months it has been paid and then when an intern takes over the administration then its rejected and pop sent to bank for verification. I dont have a problem with verification, I have a problem with the fact they refuse to reimburse me this month when they have done it in the past. If they had a problem with the tuition centre then it should have been addressed months ago and not one year later. Dies Sanlam change the rules to suit itself just to reject claims? There is absolute chaos with the handling of claims. All mail is sent to stbf, for any administrator to look at. It isnt handled by one administrator so whoever's gets to your mail will read it and have no idea with its history and will send you various requests for documentation. You send a mail today, you wait one month for a response, you respond and wait another month for a response from a different administrator and it goes on and on. Stbf needs to have one administrator assigned to one case for some order to be achieved. By the way, trying emailing the administrator directly who initially read your case, and you will be told not to do that and you should send your mail to stbf and the vicious cycle starts. Stbf claims to have the best interest of the child at hand, but from my personal experience it's not the case. I made a request on 19 January 2023 for my child's school fees to be paid. On 10 March I had to call stbf to enquire about the school fees. They had to search for the mail and I was then told it will be escalated for payment. Had it been paid earlier then a discount would have app****. I made a request on 28 November 2022 and I'm still awaiting finalization and feedback. I made a request for prom payments on 17 February 2023, no payment and the prom is on 31 March 2023. On 7 February another claim was made and even that has not been finalized. Stbf seems to forget that they charge the beneficiary a fee for handling the account. They work for the beneficiary. Stbf claims to have the best interest of the child at hand. I beg to differ because waiting for monies to come through has a detrimental effect on the child's financial support. I'm exhausted trying to get them to see reason. How does Stbf know what's in the best interest of my child when they dont know my child. They look at a piece of paper called needs assessment and decide on what's financially viable for a child. They failed to consider that my late husband was the sole supporter of the child. I havent worked because it was in the best interest of the child for me to stay home at his request but here comes Stbf who now says that I'm supposed to contribute half my child's expenses when I didnt have to do it in the past. My husband left that money so that my child will be taken care of in his absence 100%. But Stbf chooses to base the child's needs not on what's needed but how much money is left over. My child is 17 and I have been asking them to consider paying for certain things but they wont because according to them it's not in the best interest of the child. They would rather have me suffer in this terrible economic climate to raise my child and then give her the money to squander when shes 18. I'm done and my child will withdraw from the fund when shes 18 according to her father's wishes. Had stbf considered her needs and not the interest amount they make on her investment I would have encouraged her to stay on. I'm truly disappointed with STBF and so is my daughter as her quality of life has deteriorated due to administrative decisions by those who who have never even cast an eye on her. Thanks STBF for taking a daddys princess and turning her into a girl at your mercy all because a man trusted you to upkeep her life believing that his daughter will be short of nothing. And yes I'm furious because stbf has no respect for their clients.

Mrs S Moodley