One of the great frustrations for pensioners is the fact that they usually pay tax on their retirement income despite having paid tax during their working lives. It is important to do proper tax planning and seek the advice of a professional as...
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When poor health saves you money
If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, you may qualify for a higher income in retirement. When it comes to taking out life insurance, underwriting for the cover usually means that a prior illness results in a higher premium. However, when...
You either sleep well or you eat well
By Sherwin Govender, Business Development Manager at Glacier by Sanlam It's perfectly natural for clients to feel nervous about their investments, given the low-return environment over the past few years, and even more so when the client is nearing...
Afraid to ask your adviser about fees? That’s weird.
By Emma Heap, Chief Growth Officer, 10X Investments Even if you feel a tinge of anxiety each time you see another news report about the damage high fees have done to someone’s retirement plans, you remind yourself that your financial adviser is an...
Is free retirement counselling really free?
What Retirement Benefits Counselling would mean to retirement fund members and the financial advice industry. For years I have been calling on the retirement fund industry to provide financial education to their members. This is a...
Millennials: it’s time to wake up
Forget retirement and start thinking out of the box! The latest Sanlam Benchmark Survey on retirement reveals that the average retirement savings balance for a person of the age of 37 is only R90 000, and the average for millennials (people between...
A Mother’s Day gift worth a thousand boxes of chocolates
Why not skip the chocolates and the bubble bath on Mother’s Day this year, says Emma Heap, Chief Growth Officer at 10X Investments, and give your mother something really meaningful? We know Mother’s Day is upon us when the supermarket shelves are...
Is retirement even possible?
I recently had a very interesting conversation with Lourens Coetzee of investment company Marriott, who said that the industry is coming to the realisation that retirement, in the way that we currently understand the concept, is no longer feasible....
GEPF changes benefits for children and divorcees
Children of GEPF members are the biggest winners in the improvement to benefits. One of the more frequent questions we receive from members of the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) relates to the treatment of their pension fund on divorce....
Market returns disappoint retirees
Poor investment decisions at the time of retirement can have serious consequences which are often only realised several years later. You need to fully understand the implications of your investment choices. Retirees who have been relying on...
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New search engine for unclaimed benefits
Over R42 billion of retirement money remains unclaimed, which – according to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) – accounts for 1.8% of all retirement money. Over the last few years, efforts have been made by administrators of retirement funds and the FSCA...
Investing in retirement
Finding a balance between market returns and a guaranteed income in retirement When you retire from a pension fund or a retirement annuity fund, you are only allowed to take one-third of the value of your fund in cash; the remaining two-thirds must be invested into an...
How much do you need to retire?
At a recent investor roadshow, Richard Carter, head of product development at Allan Gray, provided some figures to illustrate how much you should already have saved for retirement, based on your current age. Carter worked on the assumption that to retire with 75% of...
Why sorting out your paperwork should be a New Year’s resolution
I often receive emails from people who are trying to locate their pension benefits from an employer several years after they have resigned, and I often wonder how people lose track of their money – that is until this week. Over the last few years I have neglected a...
How to evaluate your current retirement annuity
By Tracy Jensen, Chief Product Architect at 10X Investments A retirement annuity (or RA) is a pension fund for individuals, and one of the ways to save for retirement. In principle, it is a voluntary, tax-efficient savings tool to help you achieve a comfortable...
10X wants to #StopDaylightRobbery
10X Investments kicked off its campaign to #StopDaylightRobbery by causing quite a stir at Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton. Shoppers and lunch-time restaurant goers were greeted by the sight of a life-sized household scene, complete with furniture, appliances and even...
What your retirement fund value really means
It’s about the income, not the lump sum. I recently received an email from a reader who had taken early retirement and was concerned that the value of his final pension benefit was significantly lower than the amount indicated in his benefit statement six months...
The real reason you won’t have enough money at retirement
Steven Nathan, CEO of low-cost investment company 10X Investments highlights the three biggest investment anomalies and how to avoid them. When asked why the majority of South Africans fail to reach their retirement goal, most industry players will cite factors such...
Are your adult children sabotaging your retirement?
By Mark MacSymon, Certified Financial Planner and Wealth Manager at Private Client Holdings An increasingly common issue in South Africa these days is adult children still being financially dependent on their parents. This is due to low entry-level salaries,...
Would you make different decisions if you could see the future?
I recently tested a beta version of a new retirement calculator created by Sanlam Employee Benefits for their corporate clients to assist new employees in selecting their retirement fund deductions. While the calculator needs some work, it presented an interesting...