Save for your retirement
You can use unit trusts to save for your retirement.
You can invest directly into unit trusts, or you can invest in unit trusts via our retirement annuity. A retirement annuity gives you tax savings and a measure of protection, but comes with some restrictions.
Your contributions to a retirement annuity are tax-deductible and the returns you earn while invested are tax-free.
We will carefully manage your chosen unit trust investments following our proven investment philosophy. To build your long-term wealth with us, you can invest monthly or start with a lump sum, subject to our minimums.
The restrictions in a retirement annuity ensure that your savings are kept for your retirement and safeguarded from potential creditors. While your savings are protected, you can make changes or add more money at any time without transaction fees or penalties.
Reasons a retirement annuity may not be suitable for you
To ensure that your retirement savings are kept for your retirement, the following legal restrictions apply to all retirement annuities:
- Prescribed legal investment limits restrict how much you can invest in the types of investments that are considered higher risk, for example equities and offshore investments.
- You can only access your money after the age of 55, except in certain circumstances.
- When you retire you can only withdraw up to one-third of your investment as cash. The rest must be transferred to a product that can provide you with retirement income.
Choose a unit trust that suits your needs
Your investment returns come from the unit trusts you choose. You can choose from our simple range of unit trusts and you can change your selection when you need to.
When choosing a unit trust, there is a trade-off between higher potential return on the one hand, and stability and lower risk on the other.
Remember that your unit trust selection must meet the prescribed legal investment limits.
Potential for higher long-term return. However, as there is more significant fluctuation, it may not be suitable for retirement funds.
Our flagship long-term unit trust. Steady long-term return with moderate fluctuation.
Less fluctuation with above-inflation return. There may be some fluctuation within a two-year period.
Most stability with higher return than bank deposits. May not beat inflation over time but is suitable for short-term needs.
If you wish to invest in the Equity Fund (which invests 100% into equities), you must also choose another unit trust and create an investment portfolio that complies with the prescribed legal investment limits for retirement funds.
It is your responsibility to make sure that your investment complies with the legal investment limits, and continues to comply over time.
This unit trust may not be suitable for your retirement investment, which is generally long term. Since the performance of the Money Market Fund is unlikely to keep up with inflation, your retirement savings would be at risk of losing value over time.
Other unit trust options
If you would like offshore exposure, you can invest in the Allan Gray-Orbis rand-denominated offshore unit trusts. These are listed in the “local unit trusts” section on our Latest prices, factsheets and performance page.
We also have specialist unit trusts (the Allan Gray SA Equity Fund, the Allan Gray Bond Fund and the Allan Gray Optimal Fund), which may be more suitable for experienced investors who are comfortable building their own investment portfolio.
If you want to include diversification in your investment strategy, you may also want to invest in unit trusts from other investment managers.
If you want to build your own investment portfolio, it must comply with the prescribed legal investment limits. You can use our Regulation 28 calculator to check if your combination of unit trusts complies.
All investment options
View our All investment options page for the full range of our investment products and underlying unit trusts.