- June 28, 2018
Some Bahamians believe that national insurance is enough, leaning on it as their primary source of income. However it was created to supplement retirement savings.
According to Cleora Farquharson, RF Assistant Vice President of Pension Services, most Bahamians work 30 to 40 years and then live diminished lives.
“As Bahamians, we don’t save, we don’t have money for immediate needs as oppose to retirement…” says Ms. Farquharson. Now she says the RF family wants to get the discussion going on this topic so that people know how much they must save and make those steps toward saving.
RF hosted a Pension Breakfast at the Baha Mar Convention Centre yesterday where all clients and potential clients were invited and made aware of factors like inflation, age groups and wages that affect pensions.
Ms. Farquharson says that the average person does not realize how much is needed for retirement and don’t think about it until they are in retirement.
She says that time is not on our side and starting from now it is a necessity.
The staff of RF gave Bahamians options on how to live great during retirement. They introduced their new product, the RF Personal Retirement account, which is for more sophisticated investors. Customers would present RF with $100,000 minimum and it is invested on their behalf. As they live into retirement, they can obtain monthly, quarterly, annual, or semi-annual payments, so that they can take care of themselves during retirement.
RF President, Michael Anderson in agreement with Ms. Farquharson says that pension participation is very low, and Bahamians have no pension when they retire, relying heavily on NIB and family.
He says the level of unfunded persons is a disaster. “It’s a catastrophe really, it’s a crisis. When people say $3 to 4 billion quietly, it doesn’t mean its not a big number to deal with…” says Anderson.
He said Bahamians have paid “lip service” to this issue and we have done so for a while, with the issue growing behind us. Mr. Anderson says that this is not tomorrow’s problem, it is today’s.
He hopes that his organization can work with the government in solving pensions and other issues by putting plans in place with pension reforms and legislations.
“It is much more about where we are as a country today in the world with pensions. We are in a dire situation and we need to change this on a government level and in the private sector,” said Mr. Anderson.
Director of Labour, John Pinder declared that this seminar brings the importance of putting aside money just as you enter the work place. He hopes that the government will start to educate younger public servants of this to avoid the issues that we face now.
Source: The Bahama Journal