Retirement Investing in the Palm of Your Hand: EasyRetire Radically Transforming SA's Retirement Landscape

There is a moment at every great conference where a single sentence cuts through the noise and names exactly what the industry needs to hear. 

At the 2026 Batseta Winter Conference in Sun City, held under the theme C°Africa: The Power of One Degree, that sentence came from Batseta Programme Director and Board Member Jolly Mokorosi.“We cannot do it alone. But in partnership, we can achieve our goals together.”

It is a statement that sounds simple. It is anything but. And for EasyRetire, the retirement fund business of the EasyEquities Group, it is the philosophy at the heart of everything being built.

The problem being solved

South Africa has a retirement crisis hiding in plain sight. Millions of working South Africans are members of retirement funds they do not understand, invested in portfolios they cannot see, administered through systems they cannot access, with outcomes they cannot plan for.

This is not a small inefficiency. It is a structural failure, one that no single player, platform, or policy can fix alone.
But technology can change the equation, rapidly, radically, and at scale.

Retirement investing in the palm of your hand

EasyRetire was built with one core purpose: to empower financial inclusion at scale.
Not as a tagline, but as a design principle.

We are leveraging the same fractionalisation fintech capabilities that made EasyEquities the most accessible investment platform in Africa, the ability to invest any amount, in any asset, at any time, and bringing those capabilities into the retirement fund environment.

That means:

• Making investing easy. Every employer, every trustee, every fund member, regardless of financial literacy, income level, or tech savviness, deserves a retirement experience that is intuitive, transparent, and human.

• Making it accessible. Through the EasyEquities digital platform, members carry their retirement fund in their pocket: real-time balances, live investment performance, Two-Pot access at the tap of a finger, and claims processed in 2–4 working days.

• Making it affordable. The Easy Umbrella Fund charges zero administration fees. EasyRetire charges no fees on Two-Pot withdrawals. Institutional-grade, multi-manager investment performance - top-quartile ranked across our funds over the long term - at a cost structure previously out of reach for most South Africans.

• Making it educational. EasyAcademy’s educational content walks the journey with employers and employees, building the financial literacy and retirement confidence that turns passive fund members into active retirement savers.
  

The open architecture partnership model: because partnership is everything

The single most important strategic choice EasyRetire has made is this: we are not trying to do everything ourselves.

We are building an open-architecture ecosystem - a platform designed to be better because of who we partner with, not in spite of it. Best-in-class investment managers, employee wellness providers, financial wellness tools, risk benefit specialists, governance and trustee education partners, EB and investment consultants - all working together through one integrated platform in service of better member outcomes.

“What Jolly was really articulating is what we at EasyRetire have made our strategic north star,” said Nicola Comninos, CEO of EasyRetire RISE. “The retirement industry’s challenges are too complex, too systemic, and too urgent to be solved by any one organisation acting in isolation. The funds that will serve members best over the next decade will be those that embrace collaboration as a strategy, not just a sentiment. That is what our open architecture model is built for: bringing the best partners together in one ecosystem, all aligned on one outcome, better retirement futures for every South African.”

EasyRetire is that ecosystem. And it is only the beginning.

What Batseta 2026 reaffirmed

Batseta this year was a reminder that South Africa’s retirement industry is not short of ambition. The launch of the Africa Asset Owners Forum for Infrastructure Exchange (AFIX), the conversations about African pension capital, and the focus on governance, member outcomes, and long-term value creation all reflect an industry that wants to move.
EasyRetire leaves the annual Batseta Winter Conference more energised than it arrived. The relationships deepened, the conversations started, and the partnerships explored are the building blocks of the transformation we are committed to. Essay Govender, Head of Sales at EasyRetire RISE, put it best:

“In over thirty years of working in retirement and employee benefits, the one thing I have seen consistently is that the employers and funds who achieve the best outcomes for their members are the ones who surround themselves with the right partners and ask for help. EasyRetire is built on exactly that principle, and it is why I joined. We are not here to compete with the ecosystem. We are here to build it.”

Because retirement investing should not be a mystery. It should not be inaccessible. It should not be expensive. And it certainly should not be boring.

It should be in the palm of your hand - clear, simple, and powerful.

Grow. Protect. Retire. - That is not just our tagline. It is our promise to every employer and every employee who places their retirement future in our hands.

EasyRetire RISE is South Africa's first open-architecture, fintech-first retirement platform. Part of the EasyEquities / Purple Group ecosystem. FSP 49323. Section 13B Retirement Fund Administrator.

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