Sagicor pensions VP: Don’t depend only on NIS

A top insurance executive has suggested that Barbadians should stop depending solely on the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pension and save more for their retirement.

Stephen Robinson, Vice President of Pension with Sagicor Life Inc. said there was still evidence of a lot of people waiting too late in their career to invest in a pension plan.

But he said even as the focus was on acquiring various things such as a vehicle or a house, provisions should still be made to save for retirement.

Robinson said: “You don’t have to save your entire salary or half your salary that is proposed by those in the fire movement. That is a great thing if you can do it but you can start small . . . That small amount is going to grow to be quite a substantial capital by the time you are ready for retirement.

“Governments have run social security programmes for many years to assist persons with retirement, and Barbados’ National Insurance Scheme is one such example. We at Sagicor believe it is important to take personal responsibility for our own retirement planning and not to rely solely on the National Insurance Scheme.”

Insisting that the NIS was only “one pillar of retirement income”, Robinson pointed out retirement trends were showing that people over the age of 65 were on the increase, compared to the working population between the ages of 20 and 64 years.

Pointing out that current trend suggests that those depending on the pension fund of the NIS would almost double by 2050, Robinson declared: “The key message here is that we need to plan for retirement.”

He said that the earlier a retirement plan begins, the more it will yield in the end, but warned that it was critical to consider what risk was most appropriate.

“Start investing early and take the appropriate risk in order to maximise your investments,” he said.

While urging companies who do not currently offer a pension plan to consider doing so, Robinson expressed disappointment that Government has still not taken a position to reintroduce tax allowances on pension schemes.

“We do believe it would be important for the Government to review that decision and certainly I think that would go some way in encouraging people to save for retirement,” said Robinson.

“We are not seeing the level of retirement savings that we would like to see and of course that can always be improved.” He added that more education and awareness should help to encourage people to save for retirement.

Nicholas Neckles, Portfolio Manager at Sagicor Asset Management Inc., said he believed investing should be introduced into the school’s curriculum in an effort to create greater awareness around the matter of investing for the future.

“Along with a company such as Sagicor educating, I think it is important that investment is included as part of the curriculum in schools to acclimate younger people to the benefits of investing and making them feel more comfortable,” he said. (MM)