Retirement benefits are changing, and more employers are deciding it's time to catch up. Businesses are asking whether they're doing enough for their teams' financial futures.
Sometimes the biggest changes begin with an uncomfortable question.
In announcing a new retirement benefit for its employees, BizNews shared a simple but powerful reflection.
"Let me be honest about something that's been nagging at me.
BizNews reaches over a million people a month. We cover markets, investments and personal finance every single day. We interview the best minds in South African business. And yet, until recently, my own team didn't have access to a proper retirement annuity.
That's a contradiction I couldn't live with."
So BizNews decided to fix it.
The company has introduced an EasyEquities Group Retirement Annuity (RA) for its employees, giving staff access to a retirement solution designed to be transparent, flexible and easy to own.
The announcement also explains why the choice of EasyEquities felt like a natural fit.
"Regular readers know I've long admired what Charles Savage and his team have built. A platform that gives ordinary South Africans access to the same investment tools previously reserved for the wealthy. Low cost, transparent, genuinely democratising. That's exactly the kind of financial innovation BizNews exists to champion."
The decision was about making sure the company's actions reflected the conversations it has every day. BizNews is also matching employee contributions.
As the announcement puts it:
"Skin in the game matters. I ask my team to give BizNews everything they've got. The least I can do is invest in their futures the same way they invest in ours."
The thinking also speaks to a much bigger challenge facing South Africa.
Retirement can feel like something that's always far away, until one day it isn't. Yet millions of South Africans are still heading toward retirement without enough savings to support the life they hope to live.
The announcement continues:
"South Africa's retirement savings crisis is real and it's worsening. Too many people, including, until now, some of my own colleagues, are sleepwalking toward retirement without adequate provision. If BizNews can play a small part in changing that culture, starting in our own backyard, that feels like exactly the right thing to do."
It ends with a simple thought.
"It's a start. But it's a meaningful one."
According to Higgo van Biljon, Head of EasyRetire Retail, BizNews reflects a growing trend.
Thousands of South Africans moved their retirement annuities to EasyEquities over the past year. Increasingly, employers are choosing to make retirement investing part of the workplace too.
"BizNews going live is one I'm especially excited about," says Van Biljon. "I've been an admirer of their work for years, and a frequent reader and listener, so getting to help their team take ownership of their retirement means a lot."
He says many business owners still assume offering retirement benefits means brokers, complicated corporate structures, endless administration or having hundreds of employees.
Today, it can look very different.
With an EasyEquities Group Retirement Annuity, every employee owns their RA outright. There is no traditional group fund structure and no requirement for everyone to invest in the same fund. Employees have full transparency, flexibility and the freedom to choose from a wide range of Regulation 28-compliant investment options, including actively managed ETFs, unit trusts and government bonds, all on their own terms.
Getting started is straightforward, with EasyEquities helping businesses onboard their teams and build the habit of investing month after month.
For van Biljon, that's what makes the difference.
"This is simply what looking after your people looks like now."
Sometimes meaningful changes don't begin with a grand strategy.
Sometimes they begin with recognising a contradiction and deciding to do something about it.
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