In his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) speech to parliament, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene mentioned both National Health Insurance (NHI) as well as financial sector reform. NHI Nene said under Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi’s guidance, NHI will be phased in, “drawing on the lessons of the district pilot projects.” NHI is intended to […]
Tag Archivesretirement reform
Retirement planning opportunities in flux
By Allan Haynen, Director at BDO Wealth Advisors The 2015 budget has referred to various changes which will affect retirement planning opportunities for individuals. The widely publicised changes to taxation of contributions to retirement funds was due to take effect as from 01 March 2015 but had been postponed during the past year to 01 […]
Retirement reform still in progress
By David Gluckman, Head: Special Projects at Sanlam Employee Benefits, with contributions from Sanlam Employee Benefits’: Anton Swanepoel, Danie van Zyl, Kobus Hanekom, Carien Veenstra, Mayuri Reddy, Freddy Mwabi, Ryan Campbell-Harris In the 2015 budget speech, the Minister of Finance made a number of proposals that are relevant to the employee benefits industry. Retirement reform […]
Retirement reform controversy unwarranted
By Cindy Wilson and David Crossley, Wealth and Advisory, BDO South Africa A great deal of controversy has surrounded the Government’s proposed legislative changes to current Retirement Funds in 2015. Already a number of employees have taken extreme measures and have resigned from their employment in order to cash in their Provident Fund savings. These […]
Pension reformists should heed warning signs from African Bank
By Shalin Bhagwan, head of solutions at Ashburton Investments If proposals by National Treasury are implemented, all pensioners will find themselves compelled to purchase an annuity upon retirement. In the absence of any guidance, a retiree will have to decide on the credit-worthiness of the financial institution from which he or she will be purchase […]
Give workers the facts behind proposed retirement reforms
Spreading unsubstantiated rumours around the nationalisation of pension funds is reckless and harmful to workers who are said to be resigning in mass to obtain their pension money for fear that government’s proposed retirement reforms will see their savings expropriated. Hannine Drake, Senior Associate at pan-African corporate law firm, Bowman Gilfillan, commented, “Workers must be […]
Retirement is changing – are you ready?
By Jean Lombard, Head of Business Integration & Research at Glacier by Sanlam We can expect a number of changes from March 2015 and beyond. And the landscape around these changes is a complex one. Increasing longevity means one’s savings need to last longer and government’s proposals around retirement reform aim to encourage investors to […]
Retirement reform proposals are for the common good of South Africans
By Cobus Strydom, Head of Consulting, Absa Employee Benefits Criticism of government’s retirement reform proposals is largely misguided. Sceptics argue that the proposed changes are simply an attempt by government to dictate how South Africans should manage their hard-earned retirement savings. Deeper analysis reveals that individuals are intentionally job-hopping to gain access to retirement funds […]
