In previous articles, we explored strategies to safeguard retirement funds against failure, drawing insights from corporate failures and independent non-executive (NED) remuneration practices to identify transferrable learnings for retirement funds. In this...
Many retirement funds, including commercial umbrella funds, maintain a life-cycle investment strategy. Trustees carefully consider the investment strategy, with input from experts in the field. These experts design sophisticated investment strategies, often...
The world of retirement fund servicing is undergoing a significant transformation, thanks to the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants. Fund secretaries and employee benefits consultants to retirement funds can now leverage AI to streamline...
A recent and interesting industry trend is that of death benefits being placed into beneficiary funds for elderly parents of deceased retirement fund members. This is notable because beneficiary funds have since their inception been primarily seen as a...
I write this article in January 2024, the new year has arrived and we look forward to a year filled with major events, both in South Africa and abroad. National elections are scheduled to be held this year, which will inevitably have an impact on pensions and...
The recent announcement that Parliament’s standing committee on finance has declined to extend the implementation date of the two-pot retirement system to 2025 has been met with consternation by many in the industry. With reactions ranging from condemnation of the new...
The average person spends around 90 000 hours of their life working. That’s just over 10 years or 3 750 days or, in other words, a third of their lifetime. For many South Africans, retirement is far out of reach. Of the 5.2 million South Africans aged 60 and...
Not too long ago, most people were forced to work remotely from home. Even in 2022, a vast majority of organisations worldwide had introduced a remote working policy or were considering implementing one as a long term strategy. Fast forward to 2023. The need for...
Improving technology solutions by adopting the perspective of the user, or "eating your own dog food," is a powerful strategy for businesses aiming to enhance their technology platforms offered to board members, fund members, employers and other stakeholders. This...
Riaan Botha, Head of Benefit Consulting and Actuary, Simeka Consultants and ActuariesThe proposal from Treasury to postpone the implementation of the two-pot retirement system to March 2025 was noted with a sigh of relief from the retirement industry, and...
