Your retirement is not a product: eight assets that quietly drain it

Most retirements are not undone by one big mistake. They are worn down by a few decisions that each looked reasonable: the assets you buy, the commitments you sign and the people you say yes to. This article walks through eight assets that quietly drain South African retirements, with the tax rules behind each one and a story that shows the numbers.

A system, not a product

A retirement is a system, not a product. Six questions decide whether it works, and each of the eight traps below is one of them answered badly.

• Ownership: who owns each asset, and who only has a right to its income.
• The income engine: what pays you, and what limits how much it can pay.
• The succession path: where each asset goes when you die, and whether your will controls it.
• The tax architecture: how each rand is taxed when you draw it, and again at death.
• The fee model: what you pay for advice and products, in rand and per cent.
• The family boundary: where support for your children ends and your own retirement begins.

How the numbers work

The stories use round figures and a few stated assumptions. They are assumptions for the arithmetic, not forecasts, and no fund, index or product is named: choosing a product is for a licensed financial services provider. The figures illustrate each point; they are not the rates MAW plans with, which are more cautious.

• Returns: a diversified portfolio returns 9% a year before costs. All-in costs (the effective annual cost, or EAC) are 1% in the low-cost case and 3% in the high-cost case, so 8% and 6% a year after costs and before tax.
• Inflation: 4.5% a year, in line with Statistics South Africa's consumer price index for September 2026.
• Living annuities: the year's income is drawn at the start of the year, the rest grows at the return less costs, the income rises 4.5% a year, and it is kept between 2.5% and 17.5% of the fund.
• Property and products: every rent, levy, maintenance cost, growth rate and yield below is a round planning assumption, not market data. Each marginal tax rate is stated with its story.

Several amounts here are for the 2027 tax year (1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027), as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), still to be enacted:

• the income tax table, the rebates (R17 820 and R9 765) and the tax-free threshold of R153 250 at 65 and older;
• the R430 000 cap on the retirement fund deduction and the R150 000 donations tax exemption;
• the R50 000 annual capital gains tax (CGT) exclusion, the R440 000 exclusion in the year of death, the R3 000 000 primary residence exclusion and the R2 700 000 small business exclusion (for business assets of R15 000 000 or less).

The Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill that would enact them was introduced on 21 October 2026.

Eight stories follow. The people and businesses in them are fictitious, and the figures are illustrative.

Part 1: the annuity that was sold, not chosen

Dr Moodley, an anaesthetist aged 63, has R9 000 000 of retirement capital and needs R360 000 a year, 4% of it. An adviser she met once proposes a single-life annuity: an income for life. Her husband Suren asks what happens to the money when she dies. The adviser says the income is for life. He does not say that the capital is the insurer's from the day she signs, and that a life annuity cannot be undone.

• A life annuity pays an income for life in exchange for the capital. When she dies nothing is left, unless a guarantee period or a spouse's annuity was bought. A living annuity can later buy a life annuity; a life annuity can never become a living annuity.
• A living annuity is a right to an income, not an asset she owns. The insurer or the fund holds the assets, and the income is not guaranteed.
  • She must draw between 2.5% and 17.5% of the fund a year, chosen at the start and changeable only on the anniversary.
  • On her death the balance goes to the person she nominates, outside her will and outside estate duty. With no nominee it goes through her estate. If the annuity is paid by the retirement fund itself, rather than bought from an insurer, the fund's trustees decide, and may depart from the nomination.
• Contributions that never earned a tax deduction come back tax-free: section 10C of the Income Tax Act exempts annuity income up to their total, on assessment.

The numbers, if returns average 9% a year before costs

• The band on R9 000 000: 2.5% is R225 000 and 17.5% is R1 575 000 a year.
• Where the ceiling bites: R360 000 / 17.5%, about R2 057 000. Below that the annuity legally cannot pay her income, whatever capital is left. That is at today's income; the level rises as her income rises.
• Section 10C on R600 000 of contributions that never earned a deduction: the first R600 000 of her annuity income is exempt.
  • Year 1: the tax on R360 000, about R56 000 under the 2027 table, falls away.
  • Year 2: the income rises 4.5% to about R376 000. The last R240 000 of the exemption leaves about R136 000 taxable: about R6 700 of tax instead of about R60 000.
• With costs of 1% a year and her income rising 4.5% a year, the fund is about R12 699 000 after 10 years and R18 946 000 after 25.
• With costs of 3%, it is about R10 066 000 and R5 900 000, and the 17.5% ceiling binds in year 26, when she is 88. At 1% it does not bind within the 35 years modelled.

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The twist: what passes when she dies

• Suppose Dr Moodley dies at 80 with R6 000 000 left, after a poor run of markets. That is a hypothetical, below both tracks above, which hold about R15 675 000 and R9 495 000 at that point.
• Nominated to Suren and the children, it is not estate duty property.
  • Taken as a lump sum, it is taxed as if it were her own retirement lump sum: about R1 888 000, if the R550 000 tax-free band was not used before.
  • Taken as an annuity, no lump sum tax arises. They pay income tax on the annuity as they draw it.
• With no nominee it is paid to her estate. It is still outside estate duty, but it is taxed in her final return, waits for the administration and is exposed to her creditors.
  • The executor's fee alone is 3.5% x R6 000 000 = R210 000, about R242 000 with value-added tax (VAT), if the executor is registered for VAT.
• Had she signed the single-life annuity with no guarantee period, nothing would pass at all.

The point to keep. The annuity decision fixes the income, the legacy and the tax at once. Ask two questions before you sign: "What happens to the capital when I die?" and "How are you being paid for this recommendation?" Then nominate, and keep the nomination current.

Part 2: the flats that worked her, not for her

Zanele, a pharmacist aged 58, bought two flats in Randburg ten years ago for R3 000 000 as "my retirement income". She lets them through an agent and still takes every call. A colleague asks what they actually earn.

• Rent is taxed at her marginal rate after the costs of earning it: rates, levies, interest, insurance, the agent and repairs, but not improvements.
• Net rental, interest and dividends together above R30 000 a year, with taxable income above the tax threshold, make her a provisional taxpayer.
• On a sale, 40% of the gain above the R50 000 annual exclusion (for the 2027 tax year, as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by SARS, still to be enacted) is taxed. A let flat has no primary residence exclusion, and selling costs reduce the gain.
• An eviction takes months and costs money.

The numbers, on stated assumptions

• Value: R3 000 000 ten years ago, R3 600 000 today, about 1.8% a year.
  • To keep pace with inflation of 4.5% a year, the flats would need to be worth about R4 659 000. In today's money she is about R1 059 000 behind: up in rand, down in real terms.
• Gross rent: 2 x R12 000 x 12 = R288 000, 8% of the value.
• Costs: levies and rates of 2 x R4 000 x 12 = R96 000, maintenance of R30 000, the agent's 8% of the full rent roll, about R23 000, and insurance of R12 000: about R161 000.
• One empty month a flat: R24 000 of rent not received.
• Net rent before tax: R288 000 less R161 000 less R24 000 = about R103 000, 2.9% of the value.
  • Tax at a 36% marginal rate: about R37 000, which leaves about R66 000 after tax, 1.8% of the value.
• Total return after costs and before tax: 2.9% in rent plus 1.8% in growth = roughly 4.7%, against an assumed 8% in a diversified low-cost portfolio.

The twist: the bad year, and the sale

• In year seven a tenant stops paying. Four months unpaid, 4 x R12 000 = R48 000, plus R40 000 of legal costs (an assumption): R88 000, more than a year of after-tax rent.
• Selling now: a gain of R600 000, less the R50 000 exclusion = R550 000; x 40% = R220 000; at a flat 36% (an assumption; part may fall in another band), about R79 000 of CGT before buying and selling costs.
  • Selling one flat in each of two tax years uses two annual exclusions.
• The same R3 000 000 at 8% a year after costs for ten years would be about R6 477 000.
  • The flats, with their net rent reinvested at the same rate: R3 600 000 plus about R1 492 000 = about R5 092 000.
  • The gap: R6 477 000 less R5 092 000 = about R1 385 000, before tax on either side, with today's rent held flat and the bad year left out.

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The point to keep. Property is a business decision. Run every number, the tax and the empty months included, and ask: is this asset working for me, or am I doing the work?

Part 3: the holiday home and the week you must use

Johan and Elsabe, aged 66 and 64, own a house in Langebaan worth R2 800 000 and a time-share week they bought in 1998. They go to Langebaan for 24 nights a year, and feel they must, because they are paying for it.

• A holiday home's running costs are private spending and not deductible.
• Its gain on a sale has no primary residence exclusion. At death it is treated as sold at market value, unless it passes to a surviving spouse who is a South African tax resident. It also counts for estate duty, unless it passes to a surviving spouse.
• Buying one costs transfer duty on the way in.
• A time-share is a contract to pay levies that rise. Read the exit clause before you sign; leaving is a legal matter.

The numbers, on stated assumptions

• Running costs: rates of R2 500, levy and security of R1 500, insurance of R1 200, maintenance of R3 000 and utilities of R1 300 = R9 500 a month, R114 000 a year.
• Per night: R114 000 / 24 = about R4 800.
• What the capital could earn elsewhere: R2 800 000 x 8% after costs = R224 000, less the R84 000 the house itself might grow at 3% a year = R140 000 a year.
• All in, before tax: R114 000 plus R140 000 = R254 000 a year, about R11 000 a night.
• Renting a similar house instead: R3 500 a night x 24 = R84 000 a year.
• Transfer duty if they bought it today: R53 544 plus 8% of the price above R2 329 300, about R91 000.

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The twist: the levy that never stops, and the sale

• The time-share levy of R9 000 a year rises 8% a year: about R412 000 over 20 years as a plain total, and about R39 000 in year 20, for a week whose resale value is assumed to be nil.
• Sold after ten years of growth at 3% a year, the house fetches about R3 763 000: a gain of about R963 000 on today's value alone. Their total gain, measured from their own base cost, is larger.
  • No primary residence exclusion: R963 000 less the R50 000 exclusion = about R913 000; x 40% = about R365 000; at a flat 36% with one owner (an assumption; part may fall in another band), about R131 000 of CGT.
  • A house owned jointly splits the gain, with two exclusions and two rates.

The point to keep. If the house brings you joy and you have done the numbers with clear eyes, enjoy it. Just do the numbers: 24 nights you rent cost R84 000; 24 nights you own cost R254 000 a year.

Part 4: the yield that was really a loan to strangers

Bongani, a retired engineer aged 67, is offered 14% a year on R2 000 000 by an "income product". Medical scheme contributions and rates keep rising, and the fund he holds pays him 3% in dividends. He does not ask who the borrowers are.

• Products that lend to borrowers with no cushion pass the credit risk to the retiree, as "income". Structured products can carry fees built into the price, money that is hard to get out, and guarantees with conditions.
• Interest is taxed in full at the marginal rate above the R34 500 exemption at 65 and older. Dividends bear 20% dividends tax, and 40% of a capital gain is taxed after the R50 000 annual exclusion.
• A yield that is interest is the most heavily taxed investment return a retiree earns. It must clear its credit risk and its tax before it beats a diversified fund.
• If you cannot explain in plain language how your money is working, do not own the product.

The numbers, on stated assumptions

Bongani is taxed at a flat 31% (an assumption; part of the interest may fall in another band), and his exemption is assumed not to be used elsewhere.

• Interest: R2 000 000 x 14% = R280 000.
• Tax: (R280 000 less R34 500) x 31%, about R76 000. After tax, about R204 000, 10.2% of the capital.
• A diversified fund paying 3% in dividends and growing 6% a year before costs, 5% after the same 1% cost used in the rest of this article:
  • Dividends after dividends tax: R48 000.
  • Growth of R100 000, taxed as if it were realised every year, at 40% x 31% with no annual exclusion, the harshest case for the fund: about R88 000.
  • Together about R136 000, 6.8% of the capital.
• The extra yield after tax: R204 000 less R136 000 = about R68 000 a year.

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The twist: one bad year of credit

• If 30% of the capital is lost, R600 000, that is 8.8 years of the extra yield.
• With the R50 000 exclusion applied to the fund's gain, the fund gives about R142 000 (7.1%), the extra yield is about R62 000 and the same loss is 9.7 years of it.
• A planning rule of thumb, an assumption and not advice: keep the next three years of income, for Bongani 3 x R200 000 = R600 000, in money-market and short-dated instruments, and let the rest work in growth assets. Choosing the product is for a licensed financial services provider.

The point to keep. Simple, transparent, low-cost, liquid. A yield of 14% that is interest must beat its credit risk and its tax before it beats a plain fund.

Part 5: the two per cent nobody mentioned

Dr Abrahams, a dentist aged 60, retires with R12 000 000 in a living annuity and draws R540 000 a year (4.5%), rising with inflation. Her adviser's statement shows a fund fee. It does not show the advice fee, the platform fee and the administration fee in one number.

• Costs compound against the whole capital every year. You cannot control markets; you can control what you pay.
• Ask for one consolidated effective annual cost: advice, platform, administration and the underlying funds together. A provider that cannot give you one number is itself a finding.
• Most actively managed South African equity funds trail their benchmark. The SPIVA South Africa scorecard for the end of 2025 (published 26 March 2026) puts it at 80% of them in 2025, 89% over three years, 88% over five and 94% over ten. That is data, not a recommendation of any product.

The numbers, if returns average 9% a year before costs

• Fees in year 1, on the opening capital: 3% of R12 000 000 = R360 000; 1% = R120 000.
• The difference: R360 000 less R120 000 = R240 000 a year, 44.4% of her R540 000 income.
• With her income rising 4.5% a year: after 10 years, about R15 810 000 at 1% and R12 413 000 at 3%; after 20, about R18 453 000 and R8 132 000.
• After 25 years: about R18 146 000 at 1% and about R4 234 000 at 3%.
• The gap: R18 146 000 less R4 234 000 = about R13 912 000. The high-cost fund is 76.7% smaller.

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The twist: the ceiling arrives first

• At 3% the 17.5% ceiling binds in year 22, from age 81. From then on the annuity legally cannot pay the income she needs.
• That comes five years before the capital would have run out, in year 27, had it kept paying her in full.
• The R4 234 000 after 25 years is after four years of paying her less than she needs, so the gap understates the damage. At 1% the ceiling binds in year 34.

The point to keep. Two per cent a year is not a rounding error. On R12 000 000 it is R240 000 a year on day one and about R13 912 000 after 25 years. Get the one number.

Part 6: the love trap

Hassan and Rukaya, in their late sixties, have given their three children R2 400 000 over six years: a deposit on a bond, school fees for a grandchild, a loan to a business that became a second loan and a third, and living expenses for the one who emigrated and struggled. Each payment looked reasonable. Together they come to R400 000 a year.

• An outright gift to an adult child is a donation, taxed at 20% above the R150 000 annual exemption per donor (for the 2027 tax year, as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by SARS, still to be enacted). Each spouse has their own exemption.
  • For spouses married in community of property, a gift from the joint estate is treated as made half by each.
• Maintenance may be exempt if the need is real and the amount reasonable. A grandchild's school fees paid to the school may qualify: document the need and keep the invoices.
  • An ongoing allowance to a capable adult child, a bond deposit or a business loan that is never repaid is not maintenance.
• Forgiving a loan is a donation on the day it is forgiven. The donor declares and pays the tax by the end of the following month, and donor and child are both liable if it is not paid.
• A documented loan is not a donation, but it stays in the parents' estate as a claim against the child.

The numbers, treating every payment as an outright gift

None of it is counted as maintenance, and the business money is treated as given, not lent: nothing was written down and no repayment was expected. To keep the sums simple, every year uses the 2027 exemption. The exemption was lower before 1 March 2026, so the tax on gifts made in earlier years is higher than shown.

• A year: R2 400 000 / 6 = R400 000.
• If each gives half: (R200 000 less R150 000) x 20% x 2 = R20 000 a year, R120 000 over six years.
• If one spouse gives it all: (R400 000 less R150 000) x 20% = R50 000 a year, R300 000 over six years.
• Income lost for life at a 4.5% draw: R2 400 000 x 4.5% = R108 000 a year.
• Left invested at 8% a year after costs, each R400 000 as it fell due: about R6 335 000 fifteen years after the first gift. In today's money, with the nine years of inflation still to come taken out at 4.5% a year, about R4 263 000.

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The twist: the children are fine

• The children, by the way, are fine. Hassan and Rukaya are cutting their drawings and talking about selling the house.
• Inside the exemptions instead, R150 000 x 2 = R300 000 a year passes free of donations tax, R1 800 000 over six years.
• Had the R2 400 000 been a documented loan, it would still be theirs: a claim in their estate.
  • Up to R480 000 of estate duty on it (20% of R2 400 000), but only if their other assets already use the abatement (R3 500 000, or up to R7 000 000 in the second estate where the first used none), and none on the first death if the claim passes to the surviving spouse.
  • An executor's fee of 3.5% x R2 400 000 = R84 000.
  • Waiving R150 000 of the loan per parent each year, if both parents made the loan, would then pass R300 000 a year free of donations tax.

The point to keep. Have the conversation before you retire: we love you, and because we love you we must protect our retirement. A genuine emergency is not an ongoing subsidy. A parent who stays financially independent is the gift.

Part 7: the business is not a pension

Pieter, aged 55, owns Karoo Fabrication (Pty) Ltd. He pays himself R1 200 000 a year and has never contributed to a retirement fund: "the business is my pension". His accountant asks him who the buyer is.

• Contributions to a retirement fund are deductible up to 27.5% of the greater of remuneration and taxable income, capped at R430 000 a year for the 2027 tax year, as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by SARS, still to be enacted, and never more than taxable income before capital gains. Any excess carries forward.
• The deduction comes off at his marginal rate; the pension is taxed later, at his average rate. That spread is the whole argument.
  • Contribute by the end of February, the last day of the tax year, to earn the deduction in that tax year. A contribution his company makes for him is a fringe benefit: it uses the same room and must be on his employee tax certificate (IRP5).
• Since 1 September 2024 one-third of each contribution goes to a savings component, from which he may withdraw once a tax year before retirement, taxed at his marginal rate. Two-thirds go to a retirement component, locked until he retires.
• At retirement he may take the savings component in cash, taxed on the retirement lump sum table, where the first R550 000 of all his retirement lump sums over a lifetime is tax-free. The retirement component must buy an annuity.
  • An earlier resignation cash-out or retrenchment package has already used part of that band: get the history from SARS, never from memory.

The numbers, if returns average 9% a year before costs of 1%

• His room: 27.5% x R1 200 000 = R330 000 a year, inside the R430 000 cap.
• Tax saved: the tax on R1 200 000 less the tax on R870 000. The deduction crosses into the 39% band: R313 000 at 41% plus R17 000 at 39%, about R135 000.
• What the R330 000 costs him after tax: R330 000 less R135 000 = about R195 000.
• Paid at the start of each year for ten years at 8% after costs, with no tax on the growth inside the fund: about R5 163 000 on R3 300 000 paid in.
• His savings component at 65, if he never drew from it: one-third, about R1 721 000. The tax on it is about R347 000 if the R550 000 band is unused.

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The twist: the money he can reach, and the buyer

• Of each R330 000, R110 000 goes to the savings component and R220 000 to the retirement component.
  • A R100 000 withdrawal before retirement is taxed on top of his R870 000: R17 000 at 39% and R83 000 at 41%, about R41 000 of tax. SARS takes any tax he owes off it first, and what he takes now is not there at 65.
• The business is one asset, with one buyer and one valuation. The small business CGT exclusion of R2 700 000, for a person aged 55 or older with business assets of R15 000 000 or less (for the 2027 tax year, as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by SARS, still to be enacted), softens the sale on its own conditions. It does not diversify the risk.
• In the year the business is sold, the deduction cannot shelter the gain, because the limit is taxable income before capital gains. The relief is deferred, not lost.

The point to keep. A business is an asset; a pension is a structure. Use the room every year: R330 000 in costs Pieter about R195 000, and the tax waits until he draws it.

Part 8: the order you draw in, and what the will cannot touch

Dr Chetty, a general practitioner aged 66, and his wife Vani, married out of community of property, need R500 000 a year. He has R5 000 000 in a living annuity, R3 500 000 in unit trusts with a base cost of R2 000 000, and the house, worth R4 000 000 with a base cost of R1 500 000. His adviser draws everything from the living annuity because "that is what it is for".

• A living annuity draw is income, taxed at marginal rates. A draw from unit trusts is mostly his own capital coming back, plus a gain taxed at 18% at most.
• At 65 and older the two rebates (R17 820 and R9 765) lift the tax-free threshold to R153 250 of taxable income, and on top of that up to R34 500 a year of interest is exempt.
• Drawing in order of tax character keeps him in the lowest bracket for longest. Income Vani earns on assets in her own name uses her own threshold; moving assets to her to manufacture that is caught by the attribution rules.
• At death the living annuity goes to its nominee, outside the will and outside estate duty, with no CGT. Everything else is treated as sold at market value unless it passes to a spouse who is a South African tax resident.

The numbers, on stated assumptions

• Option A, all R500 000 from the living annuity (a 10% draw, inside the band): tax before rebates of R116 237 under the 2027 table, less the two rebates of R27 585 = R88 652, about R89 000.
• Option B, R250 000 from the living annuity (a 5% draw) and R250 000 from the unit trusts:
  • Of the R250 000 sold, about R143 000 is his own capital back (a base cost of R2 000 000 on R3 500 000) and about R107 000 is gain.
  • Less the R50 000 exclusion = about R57 000; x 40% = about R23 000 included.
  • Taxable income: R250 000 plus R23 000 = about R273 000, and tax of about R24 000.
• The saving: R89 000 less R24 000 = about R65 000 a year. The split and the base cost are assumptions, and the saving depends on them.

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The twist: Dr Chetty dies

Left to the children, the unit trusts and the house are treated as sold on the day he dies.

• CGT in his final return:
  • The house's gain of R2 500 000 less the R3 000 000 primary residence exclusion (for the 2027 tax year, as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by SARS, still to be enacted) is nil.
  • The unit trusts' gain of R1 500 000, less the R440 000 exclusion in the year of death (for the 2027 tax year, as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by SARS, still to be enacted) = R1 060 000; x 40% = R424 000 included.
  • At an assumed 36% marginal rate, about R153 000. On top of R250 000 of annuity income that year it would be about R132 000; on top of R500 000, about R159 000.
• Estate duty: property of R3 500 000 plus R4 000 000 = R7 500 000, less about R500 000 of deductions = R7 000 000.
  • The deductions are the executor's fee of 3.5%, about R263 000, or R302 000 with VAT if the executor is registered for VAT; the CGT of about R153 000, which is a debt of the estate; and other debts and costs, the balance, an assumption.
  • Less the R3 500 000 abatement = R3 500 000; x 20% = R700 000.
• Left to Vani instead, a South African tax resident: no CGT and no estate duty on his death, and the unused abatement carries to her estate, which may then deduct up to R7 000 000.
  • This defers the tax rather than removing it: Vani takes over his base cost, and the assets are in her estate when she dies.
• The R5 000 000 living annuity never enters either calculation, and the will cannot redirect it: only the nomination can. If the nominees take it as a lump sum, it is taxed on the retirement table as his, as in Part 1.

The point to keep. Draw in order of tax character, and know which assets your will controls. The retirement fund is not in your estate; the unit trusts and the house are.

Where to start

None of the eight traps is a bad product on its own. Each is a question in the system answered without the numbers. Ask the question that runs through all eight: what else could this money be doing for you?

• Before you sign an annuity, ask what happens to the capital when you die, and how the adviser is being paid.
• Nominate beneficiaries on every living annuity, and keep the nominations current.
• Run every rental and holiday home through the full numbers, tax and empty months included.
• If you cannot explain how a product earns its yield, do not own it.
• Ask for one all-in cost on every investment you hold.
• Keep gifts to adult children inside the annual exemptions, or document them as loans.
• Use your retirement fund deduction every year, even if you own a business.
• Draw in order of tax character, and check which assets your will controls.

We help clients bring these eight questions together into one retirement plan, across their own wealth, their business, their estate and their family. Book a free discovery call and we will talk it through with you.

For educational purposes only. This content is not tax, legal or financial advice, and it does not recommend any financial product. The people and businesses in these stories are fictitious and the figures are illustrative; any resemblance to real people or businesses is coincidental. Returns, costs, rents and inflation are assumptions, not forecasts. The tax figures are for the 2027 tax year; some are as announced in Budget 2026 and applied by SARS, still to be enacted, and the law can change. Speak to a qualified adviser before you act on your own situation.