Importance of nominating your investment beneficiaries

Investing for retirement is the focus of the strategies of South African investors and they invest large portions of their total wealth or investable assets in retirement vehicles.

- Ruan Breed

Hindsight may not be a perfect science, but many retirees agree that if they had the chance to do their retirement planning all over again, they would do a lot differently.

The 2023 10X Retirement Reality Report reveals that 71% of respondents are partially or strongly of the view that they will need to continue earning a living after their formal retirement date.

In fact, 49% of all female respondents to the survey indicated that they do not have a retirement plan, compared with 43% of men, and it goes without saying that many retirees today have investment regrets.

From our experience in retirement planning, these are the top factors that retirees regret most about their journeys.

Not seeking professional advice earlier The most basic mistake that many retirees attest to is not having sought professional advice earlier. Many retirees assumed that the contributions to their workplace retirement fund were sufficient to secure a comfortable retirement and, as such, didn't feel that professional advice was necessary.

Some retirees admit to feeling embarrassed that they hadn't saved enough and didn't feel that an advisor could do much to help them.

Old-school insurance retirement annuities lacked transparency and penalised investors heavily for termination or early cancellation, and many retirees avoided using these vehicles to fund for their retirement.