retirement annuities Archives -

It’s time that treasury stopped being short-sighted when it comes to the wealthy!

A few years ago, during the National Budget Speech, government put a cap of R350k pa on retirement contributions. It appears that no one at treasury has given this much thought

Sanlam Cumulus Echo RA

I was recently approached by someone for help with her Sanlam RA’s – they are the bad, old traditional life RA’s with opaque fees, poor returns and hefty penalties if you make any changes before the term ends. It seems that Sanlam has found a way around this though with their Cumulus Echo RA where …

Is everyone thinking it but no one prepared to say it?

What if SA is where Zimbabwe was ±20-25 years ago? With the benefit of hindsight, what would the average Zimbabwean do differently? Would they have stopped investing into their pension funds and bought more foreign currency? Would they have emigrated? Would they have bonded their houses to the hilt and taken the funds offshore? I …

Is there still a case for RA’s?

The recent changes to Regulation 28 rules around retirement funds has caused a bit of “excitement” in the asset management industry and I have seen at least 2 articles making a case that the stricter enforcement of the Reg 28 rules make Retirement Annuities unattractive investments, especially for younger investors (see the article by Jan …

Does this make sense?

Was doing provisional tax calculations for a client and was wondering about the effectiveness of her using an RA to reduce her tax liability. She does not belong to a pension fund and all her income is therefore “non-retirement funding”. As such she could put 15% of this into an RA before the end of …

They prowl the empty streets at night…

“They prowl the empty streets (at night), waiting in fast cars and on foot”* looking for unsuspecting consumers. Yes, it’s that time of year again when Retirement Annuity salesmen are on out in full force. February is “traditionally” RA month as it signifies the end of the tax year and anyone needing to put money …

Talk is cheap!

Ok, so almost everyone accepts that a unit trust RA is currently the best retirement annuity available in SA…(for reasons of cost, transparency and most importantly, flexibility). And while government is (apparently) intent on encouraging retirement savings, it seems that they really are only paying lip service to the issue because you can only access …

The Financial Coach

It’s time that treasury stopped being short-sighted when it comes to the wealthy!

Sanlam Cumulus Echo RA

Is everyone thinking it but no one prepared to say it?

Is there still a case for RA’s?

Does this make sense?

They prowl the empty streets at night…

Talk is cheap!