Question about Sagicor Annuity / Pension

Olivia425 · Postby **Olivia425** » November 24th, 2010, 6:30 pm

I have an annuity from Sagicor (from a previous employer) that has been inactive for a number of years. I am in the market for a pension plan/ annuity and was wondering the merits of re-activating this one or just begin a new one.

Advice/ comments appreciated.

Imran007 · Postby **Imran007** » November 25th, 2010, 9:09 am

you should get a new one annuity but compare Sagicor with Guardian life and then decide....

and before anyone says anymore i have considerable interest in both companies....

Country_Bookie · Postby **Country_Bookie** » November 25th, 2010, 12:15 pm

In addition to comparing to GHL, you should also compare with the Annuities offered by the commercial banks. RBTT has Futurecash and RBL has TISP.
Its been my experience that the fees charged by insurance companies are higher than those from the bank.
With my GHL annuity, they deducted 50% of my contributions for the 1st 2 years as fees. Of course they’ll say that they guarantee a minimum return of 4.5% per annum, but its easy to guarantee me 4.5% when u jooking out my eye with 50% right? After the 1st 2 years, u will still be charged a monthly fee of $34 on all contributions. So if u r contributing, say $500 / month, that’s 6.8% of ur contributions in fees. So their return has to be at least 6.8% for u to break even.
With the banks, the fees are 2-3% of ur contributions. U’ll have to do some calculations based on the amount u plan to contribute monthly, but it seems u’ll be better off with a bank annuity.
PM me if u need further advice.

neilsingh100 · Postby **neilsingh100** » November 25th, 2010, 12:26 pm

At this point in time the banks are a safer bet than Sagicor or Guardian Life.

nismoid · Postby **nismoid** » November 25th, 2010, 12:35 pm

Country_Bookie wrote:In addition to comparing to GHL, you should also compare with the Annuities offered by the commercial banks. RBTT has Futurecash and RBL has TISP.
Its been my experience that the fees charged by insurance companies are higher than those from the bank.
With my GHL annuity, they deducted 50% of my contributions for the 1st 2 years as fees. Of course they’ll say that they guarantee a minimum return of 4.5% per annum, but its easy to guarantee me 4.5% when u jooking out my eye with 50% right? After the 1st 2 years, u will still be charged a monthly fee of $34 on all contributions. So if u r contributing, say $500 / month, that’s 6.8% of ur contributions in fees. So their return has to be at least 6.8% for u to break even.
With the banks, the fees are 2-3% of ur contributions. U’ll have to do some calculations based on the amount u plan to contribute monthly, but it seems u’ll be better off with a bank annuity.
PM me if u need further advice.

If its the GHL Lifestyle annuity then its supposed to be 100% of contributions in the first 2 yrs are used to pay for policy fees and admin charges, then in the 25th month your contributions would accrue interest (less morbidity charges)
This is what i remember prior to 1999, only if they changed it since.
also banks cannot sell "annuities " they could sell "individual retirement plans" or ""Tax incentive saving programs" whereat the age of maturity with the bank's plans, they now have to go to an insurance company to purchase an Immediate Annuity at the insurance company purchase rate (which is usually higher than if you bought the annuity from them in the first place)
so its not as clear cut that its better off buying an annuity from the bank.

Country_Bookie · Postby **Country_Bookie** » November 25th, 2010, 2:20 pm

nismoid wrote:also banks cannot sell "annuities " they could sell "individual retirement plans" or ""Tax incentive saving programs" whereat the age of maturity with the bank's plans, they now have to go to an insurance company to purchase an Immediate Annuity at the insurance company purchase rate (which is usually higher than if you bought the annuity from them in the first place)
so its not as clear cut that its better off buying an annuity from the bank

Right now that's the only drawback to buying it from the bank. However the banks have been lobbying to get the legislation amended so that they are not forced to buy an annuity from the insurance company at the maturity of the plan. I’d rather take that chance than be stuck with the insurance companies and their ridiculous fees.

Imran007 · Postby **Imran007** » November 25th, 2010, 2:57 pm

the only safe annuities are from insurance companies and not banks... Guardian life fees are charged up front and not in the end upon maturity....remember annuities are usually from retirement ie long term, with guardian its only after the 1st 5 years, then you'll see how the policy grows... and the 4.5% per annum, is guaranteed by law... i'm not too sure but the only safe thing with the banks are up to $75,000 per bank.... so how is the banks safer????
but its always good to look at everyone... there are other companies but guardian is the biggest player and sagicor is right after, everyone else is smaller.... analyze their accounts when they publish it in the press.

nismoid · Postby **nismoid** » November 25th, 2010, 3:25 pm

^^ in my opinion, the drawback with the Guardian Life annuity is the fact that the monies are invested on the TT stock exchange, now this is a two sided coin because if the stock market does good at YOUR date of retirement then your pension is calculated at that day so you win.
BUT if the the market is like what it is now and your retirement date is during this time when the market is low then your pension is calculated at the low rate so you may lose. You see GHL passes the entire investment risk onto the client which is UNFAIR .
after all the company is using the clients money to invest on the stock market and if the stock market does good, the profit is firstly absorbed by GHL and then a portion of it is passed on to you (the client). But if the market does bad then the ENTIRE LOSS is passed onto the client.
OH and that 4.5% is an annually declared rate, it doesn't guarantee you that for the entire life of the policy.

redmanjp · Postby **redmanjp** » November 28th, 2013, 12:18 pm

bumping this thread..

so Pan American Life came in my office recently and told me about Retirement Annuity Plan

If i retire at 70

If deposit are $1287/mth, I get $3000/mth at a guaranteed rate of 1% or $8495/mth at the projected rate of 4%

If i retire at 65, with same mthly deposit, i get $2080 at 1% or $5570 at 4%

How does this compare with other plans from other institutions?

JoKeR1980 · Postby **JoKeR1980** » November 28th, 2013, 1:34 pm

one setta money talk on tuner dese days jed........

src1983 · Postby **src1983** » November 28th, 2013, 1:48 pm

Men getting older, studying their future...

This a good thing

Premera · Postby **Premera** » November 29th, 2013, 7:04 am

I am a Guardian Agent. Our policy charges are front loaded, we take the fees from the initial payment for the first year only. 75% charges are taken. from year 2 onwards 100% is credited to the pension fund.

The banks have back end charges, the make more money as the charges are higher when interest is added.

With regards to having a second annuity, it may be the better option depending on the number of years premiums have been unpaid.

The first question to ask yourself is " Am I paying premiums for the tax benefit only OR for both tax break and to fuel my retirement fund " ?

based on this you can decide whether to pay arrears premiums or simply start a new one and have both fuelling your retirement funding.

You can pm for more info.

Premera · Postby **Premera** » November 29th, 2013, 7:07 am

I also have a monthly fund index that shows the performance of the fund(s) for the past year and the breakdown of instruments the monies are invested in.

Most of the pension and other funds are invested in GOVT BONDS.....most of it simply because the pension is a long term investment one makes and so too are govt bonds.

I can email accordingly.

send pm with email addresses or call me at 740 - 3666