Your future self is counting on you
World Financial Planning Day is a timely reminder to reflect on your retirement plan, with MBSE’s Julette Wentzel asking whether your future self will thank you for today’s decisions.
#retirementsavings
Retirement fund fees: Is cheaper really better?
The developing FSCA value-for-money approach puts costs alongside investment performance, service quality, governance, and member outcomes.
FSCA explores value-for-money framework for retirement funds
The regulator is looking to international models as it seeks a more consistent way to assess member outcomes, costs, and investment performance.
Are trustees looking at the real cost of retirement-fund fees?
Initial cost comparisons can obscure how fees linked to assets, salaries, or membership grow over time, potentially producing sharply different outcomes.
Mental well-being linked to two-pot withdrawals
Discovery’s research points to a complex relationship between mental well-being, financial behaviour, and retirement savings withdrawals.
Living annuity inflows hit R104.5bn as assets top R900bn in 2025
ASISA’s member statistics show substantial market growth, while the average drawdown rate remained broadly stable at 6.6%.
Debt and retirement pressures drive new product thinking
With household debt absorbing income and retirement outcomes remaining poor, Discovery has introduced a benefit aimed at addressing both pressures.
Unclaimed benefits | Support for central tracing, not central control
Retirement funds back efforts to make unclaimed benefits easier to find but say transferring billions in retirement assets into a central fund goes too far.
What a weekly workout can teach us about retirement
Exercising regularly is only the starting point for Discovery’s argument that everyday behaviours can have a lasting effect on earnings, debt, and retirement security.
Adviser usage falls, according to latest Old Mutual Monitor
Fewer respondents are using advisers as AI tools gain traction, and many remain unsure where to turn for financial guidance.
Why retirement advice isn’t changing behaviour
Access to education and information has expanded, but the challenge is turning member engagement into better financial decisions and outcomes.
Preserved, but scattered: the new retirement savings challenge
As members leave compulsory preserved savings behind when changing jobs, fragmentation across funds may make it harder to manage fees, investments, and progress towards retirement.
What the two-pot system reveals about financial resilience
Former FSCA Deputy Commissioner Astrid Ludin argues that the reform has become an unexpected indicator of South Africans’ vulnerability to financial shocks.
What happens when clients stop behaving their age?
Sanlam’s latest Benchmark suggests economic shocks, disrupted careers, and health risks are reshaping how clients across age groups make financial decisions.
Small bets, big consequences: How gambling quietly erodes financial resilience
The latest Benchmark research argues that small, recurring gambling losses can compound over time just as powerfully as disciplined investing can build wealth.
The next frontier for employee benefits is integration
Sanlam’s Benchmark report argues that improving member outcomes increasingly depends on linking financial advice, healthcare, and risk benefits.
The quiet revolution in retirement fund costs
Despite two decades of growing regulation, administration costs have fallen sharply, leaving more retirement contributions invested for members.
