IS YOUR RETIREMENT FUND safe from plunder?

Financial planner Gregg Sneddon says many of his clients have stopped contributing to their retirement annuities, preferring to take their after-tax money and invest offshore. “To be honest, given the current rhetoric from government and the weak economy, I am not advising young people to take out a retirement annuity,” said Sneddon.

He adds that all his clients who turned 55 this year opted to retire from their retirement annuities, taking one-third to invest offshore and investing the rest in a living annuity with full offshore exposure.

Craig Gradidge, the CEO of Gradidge Mahura Investments, confirmed that they had received queries from concerned clients, “generally after they have read a sensational article by someone who is scaremongering”.

Janina Slawski, the head of Investments Consulting at Alexander Forbes, said they were spending a lot of time sending out communication to calm