South Africa’s R50.4 Trillion Protection Gap: What Are We Missing? with Prince Sarpong

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South Africa’s life and disability protection gap has reached R50.4 trillion, despite years of financial education, stronger regulation and a more professional advice industry.

So what are we missing?

In this episode of PROpulsion LIVE, Prof. Prince Sarpong joins us to explore why he believes the problem is not mainly financial literacy, but legibility. In simple terms, people may understand that they are exposed, but they often do not know their own financial position clearly enough to act.

We discuss:

Why the protection gap keeps growing
The difference between literacy and legibility
Why “screening, not schooling” may be a better approach
How advisers can create salience without shame
What SikaSync is designed to show clients
Why protection advice may open new opportunities for growing advice businesses
What advisers can do differently in their client conversations

The one big question we explore is:

If financial literacy is not closing South Africa’s R50.4 trillion protection gap, what needs to change to help more people understand their own risk and act on it?

The conversation draws on Prince’s working paper, Financial Planning for the Greater Good, which argues for a diagnostic-led model that makes personal financial exposure clearer and more actionable.

Here is the link to Sika Smart that Prince spoke about: https://sikasmart.epistemica.co.za/ 

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