Continuing retirement annuities in South Africa

[FromDurbs]

HI All

 

We just passed our one year anniversary in Australia.  I have composed a few posts in my head, but have not gotten as far as putting it down in writing.

All I will say now is that time surely flies !

 

For those of you who remember, I had a desperate husband who was looking for a job and growing more and more depressed with every rejection letter.  Well, that husband has been working for about 4 months now.  He is very happy.  He is working in his field, not his exact same kind of job, but he uses his skills, and for a decent salary.  He works for an aboriginal organisation and is enjoying learning about the culture, and fighting for the underdog again.   We are amazed at the resources available for social services in this country.

 

I am looking for financial advice at the moment.  I have been diligently paying retirement annuities in South Africa.  I was probably one of the 3% who actually saved adequately for retirement.  I now need to decide what to do with those savings.  My plan is to keep the money in the annuities and not emigrate financially, at least for the time being.  I am very reluctant to continue investing money in South Africa and add to these savings that I cannot use for the next 20 years anyway.  However, my broker believes I should keep up my retirement annuities  since it earns so much more interest than it does in Australia.  I can afford the premiums, since I still have rental income in South Africa, and could pay the annuities in stead of transferring the money here.  

 

If I make these policies paid up I will lose about 10% of their value.  That does not sound like a good idea either. What have other people done?  Taken the 10% knock, or kept up their annuities?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gerhardk]

I am an accountant / tax agent but this is not advice just what we did.

 

We made it paid-up as soon as we left. One reason was that we would not receive the tax benefit in Australia for  RAF contributions. We decided to rather put the extra money into Super (concessional) which works similar to RAF (tax deduction). We were under the income tax threshold in RSA even though we also had rental properties so we also did not receive the tax benefit in RSA. Another reasons was the devaluation of the Rand.

 

We did not have to pay penalties on all the policies, we asked for a quote and I think only one was applied. We then transferred this to an independent broker (as opposed to one of the mutual fund companies) and he manages the investments for us, we also consolidated all the little policies so it is easier to see what is going on. The growth he achieved made up for the penalty and his costs are less than the brokers (usually).

 

Yes sure the interest rate is higher but the risk is higher. Looking back the higher interest rate did not make up for the devaluation in exchange rate.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Gerhardk

[CharlesH]

I have the same question/dilemma. I'm also sitting with a considerable amount in a RA but making it paid up and financially emigrating will have a penalty, not to mention the tax.    Also how does it affect the situation if one becomes an Aus citizen?

[RedPanda]

Just to put that 10% into perspective for you. This weekend the ANC elected a new president, the Rand jumped from R10.65 last week to R9.66 yesterday. That's (10.65-9.66)*100/10.65=9.3% over three days! When your exchange rate is this volatile 10% loss means buggerall. I'd say grow it slowly but surely on this side. That's my thinking.

(Sure, I know the Rand improved by ~10%, but you don't know what's in the future, next time it could go down by that much.)

[Gya]

I decided to transfer mine and below are the requirements from Old-mutual
 

-Clear copy of your passport indicating an exit date from South Africa
-Certificate of residency obtained from the relevant tax authority of the country in which you reside
-Copy of the visa indicating the expiry date and purpose for which the visa was issued.
-Letter from your bank together with a current bank statement confirming that they are prepared to accept the funds that are about to be paid over.
-Completed exchange control application as indicated above
-The South African active income tax number.

 

Now awaiting certificate of residence from ATO