By Rowan Burger: Head of Investment Strategy at Liberty Retail South Africa As a South African it’s time to seriously think about your retirement plan and be cognisant of our changing world of work. In the UK, twenty year olds are three times more likely to get to 100 than their grandparents. A quarter of [...]
Archive | Employee Benefits RSS feed for this section
New retirement reforms must be sustainable
Government’s planned retirement reforms are set to provide South Africans better protection and an enhanced deal from the financial services industry, yet if this new model is to prove successful, it is critical that reform is structured in a sustainable manner in the long term. This is according to Willem Loots, head of umbrella fund [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
Rules of engagement when panic sets in
By Mark Saunders, acsis Institutional Asset Consultant Online dictionary, Wikipedia defines panic as “a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight or flight reaction. Panic may occur singularly in individuals [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
HIV in the workplace – employers have a role to play
World Aids Day on 1 December is a timely reminder for businesses in South Africa – which have been hugely affected by the disease with approximately 5.38 million South Africans living with HIV/AIDS – to continue with the development of HIV programmes within the workplace. According to Andre Jacobs of Aon Hewitt South Africa, no [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
Tax breaks for retrenched
Those facing retrenchment or retirement can look forward to better tax breaks from this year, with retrenchment or retirement tax-free payments increasing from R30,000 in a lifetime to R315,000, effective from the 2012 tax year. This is according the Ron Warren, executive chairman of payroll software company NuQ, who says that prior to March 2011, [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
Socially responsible investing gets a boost
By Rowan Burger: Head of Strategy, LibFin A new investment code requires institutional investors to look past immediate financial profits to long-term sustainability. Sustainability and good business Socially responsible investing has, in the past, been ignored by investors who believe that companies which put ‘softer’ issues – such as environmental and [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
Government spouses get quick access to pension funds on divorce
By Max Rowley is an Associate of the Pension Law Department at Shepstone & Wylie Attorneys When it comes to divorce, the law governing the Government Employee Pension Fund (“GEPF”) has been ruled unconstitutional by the Western Cape High Court. However, the court has given parliament 12 months in which to correct the [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
Governance before and during a black swan crisis
The natural disasters to hit Japan clearly demonstrate the importance of effective risk management and disaster recovery planning. According to The Institute of Directors of Southern Africa (IoDSA) this event can be classified as a ‘black swan’, an event that is highly improbable, yet with a catastrophic impact should it occur. In short, few companies [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
New company car legislation
New Company Car Legislation Results in Increased Taxation and Administration Nightmare Amended legislation has resulted in an increase in the percentage rate used to calculate the monthly fringe benefit for all company cars and a radical change in the taxation of company cars from 1st March 2011, making the keeping of a log [...]
Read full story • Comments are closed
Latest Issue - 31 January 2012
In This Issue:
- Prospects for 2012
- New Retirement Thinking?
- Reasons to be concerned about Europe
- Short-term insurance survey
Newsletters
Newsletter 16 February 2012: Investing in uncertain times
In today’s newsletter we share some strategies investors can follow when investing in uncertain times. Uncertain times require a focus on the basics By Nic Andrew, head, Nedgroup Investments Negative news headlines, enormously complex macro-economic issues, extreme market volatility and often contradictory comments from the experts… There are an almost overwhelming number of factors influencing [...]
