Tag: Alexander Forbes

Estate planning means making a plan for taking care of your nearest and dearest and dealing with everything you own and owe when you pass away. A will or testament is a legal document where you leave instructions on how you want your family to be taken care of, and who will inherit assets like property, jewellery, cars or investments that you own.

Lingering after effects of COVID-19 which persist for more than six weeks have been deemed 'Long COVID-19' by the World Health Organisation – and those holding down jobs need to manage their symptoms while being expected to return to work.

With the cost of living increasingly expensive, it is important to know how and where to save money. In this way, you can get a handle on your finances and feel more in control. We all have different money management styles. Along the way can find ourselves making mistakes, which can cost us a lot and possibly set us back on our money saving quest.

Changes to retirement benefits for provident fund members, initially meant to come in five years ago and now scheduled for next March, will see tax uniformity for all who contribute towards retirement. These changes, in terms of the Taxation Laws Amendment Act, will also encourage greater savings, something South Africa desperately needs as it seeks to crawl its way out of an economic hole.

The human resources (HR) challenge for this new world of work will be that best answers for dealing with these tectonic changes will likely come from employees, and not from an HR or change expert. Remember our mantra here: we’re in uncharted waters. After five months of this pandemic, we hope we’ve all torn up our company policy documents.

Research shows that COVID-19 has caused women greater economic hardship than men. Women’s month is an opportunity to address larger societal issues such as equality, poverty and income security. Women must be financially independent to be fully empowered.

We are living in unprecedented times and the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone differently. The lockdown following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in significant financial strain. Many employers are unable to pay salaries or have been forced into a position where they can only pay reduced salaries.

With low GDP growth, credit ratings downgrades and the COVID-19 pandemic, our economy has taken a knock, leaving many investors’ reluctant to save and invest.

There is never a good time to discuss finances with your partner, married or unmarried, and one key issue that needs to be discussed is whether you should merge your finances. Joining all your money matters can seem overwhelming at first, so you don’t have to combine every bank account and credit card from the get-go.

In South Africa we are fortunate to have freedom of testation, or simply put, if you are 16 years and older, you can choose whom the beneficiaries of your earthly possessions will be after your demise. As such, it is important that your Will is properly executed.