31 March 2025
With more than 800 delegates, the Glacier Public Sector Webinar 2025 kicked off this morning with Blake Beilings, Deputy Principal Officer of the Sanlam Umbrella Funds examining some of the deep concerns regarding the health of the retirement fund industry. With reference to the Mercer Report of 2024, South Africa scored a D-grade, which means the industry has some desirable features but with
major weaknesses in the system. View the presentation
Anton Nel, Senior Actuary at Simeka Consult, took a deep dive into retirement reform in South Africa. Why did the reform establish compulsory annuitisation in 2021 and the Two-Pot Retirement system in 2024? Compulsory preservation is the objective, but how will this play out over time? In the public sector, different funds have different applications of the reform, and intermediaries are hard-pressed to understand technical nuances.
Know your client very well. That’s the start of ‘dignified financial planning’ for clients in the public sector. Alfred Banda, Regional General Manager at Sanlam Connect, gave us some insight into the importance of knowing the trends in the market, the changing demographics of clients, and their changing needs. These factors shape the financial planning that advisers deliver. Holistic financial planning demands the creation of nuanced insights as financial plans evolve and advisers partnering with experts in solutions and themes like behavioural finance.
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In the first panel discussion of the day moderated by Jabulani Sibanyoni, Dinash Pillay, Sinalo-uzuko Mputa and Yondela Gqweta, shed some light on the opportunities that intermediaries could unlock in the sector, and it starts with treating clients with dignity. More than 214 000 public servants currently are 55 or older. Their retirement is on the horizon within the next 10 years. How prepared are they to retire? How could advisers help these clients? There are opportunities to maximise contributions toward retirement savings in the context of holistic financial planning. Basic money management for clients, are essential needs in this sector and intermediaries need to be geared to provide this kind of advice as well as guidance regarding health and wellness. Also, how can advisers encourage discretionary investment in a lower interest rate environment?For clients being offered an early retirement, this is not the time to make uninformed choices. Financial and retirement income planning are required within a framework of the processes of the GEPF and other public sector funds.
What kind of an environment have you created as a leader? Keynote speaker, Mteto Nyati, currently the chairman of Eskom and executive chairman of BSG, emphasised the importance of the leaders of others starting by leading themselves, which is rooted in self-mastery, and which comprises self-awareness, personal values, vision and purpose. Effective leadership cares deeply for their people but is not a popularity contest; it is defined by performance and results.
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How far have we come since the Two-Pot Retirement System was implemented in September 2024? Lee-Anne Pieterson and Colleen Fisher took a peek into the purpose of the reform; a short review of the processes and to what extent, generally, investors have withdrawn from their savings pots – and in particular from the GEPF and other public sector retirement funds. View the presentation
A game-changing tool for advisers – that’s how we’re describing the new tool called the Glacier GEPF Retirement Illustrator. Alysha Heyns-Arendse introduced the tool and the features it offers to enable intermediaries to calculate GEPF retirement benefits. With a step-by-step navigation guide, illustrations of benefits and side-by-side comparisons based on current annuity rates, the tool brings intermediaries a big step closer toward more accurate illustrations for their clients.
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In the second panel discussion, moderated by Neal Sinclair, the panelists Alysha Heyns-Arendse, Sherwin Govender, Kgabo Matshebula and Rainier van der Nest explored the opportunities for discretionary investing around the gratuity paid to early retirees in the GEPF. A robust, diversified portfolio that can carry the investor through many market cycles is at the heart of prosperity for that client. Such a portfolio would consist of an offshore solution, passive as well as active investing, and exposure to alternatives. Glacier has pioneered combinations to best effect for clients who are in retirement. Now, combinations can extend to discretionary (voluntary) money and will add huge value in enhancing investors’ post-retirement income. All of these portfolios can be built in Glacier’s ICE tool and the brand-new GEPF tool.
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Business Development Co-ordinators, Kurhula Ngwenya and Noma Modise, took advisers through the processes and documents that GEPF employees who are retiring need to ensure efficient processing.
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Watch webinar recording
View the 2024 Glacier Public Sector Webinar resources here.
