We’re all living longer, healthier lives, which is good news. And it’s great news if you can afford to really enjoy retirement. But how do you know if you’ll be able to afford it, and how do you go about ensuring that you can? The trick is careful planning. Retirement entails far more than just picking an age when you want to stop working and a beachfront property to retire to. It requires a hard look at your lifestyle, your resources and a whole host of factors that we tend to take for granted while we’re working. Most people, but not all, deal with immediate money issues but are much less likely to think about what they need 40 years from now.
Key expatriate employees, when planning for their retirement, need security to help sustain their lifestyle in the future, as well as provide protection for themselves and their dependants. They also need flexible, transparent and portable solutions that best suit their working lives.
When Zurich International Life launched MAGNUS one year ago, not only did it offer employers - for the first time in the UAE, an opportunity to provide adequate pension benefits in a flexible, portable plan, but it was the first international corporate pension product to be granted a license in the United Arab Emirates. Since it was introduced in the region last year, Zurich International Life’s MAGNUS has been sold to over 40 corporations globally, covering the retirement needs of over 1700 employees.
“MAGNUS was designed to cut out the time consuming and complex procedures needed to put international employee benefit packages in place. It removes some of the hard work, making it an easy and rewarding option for corporations,” says Simon Bird, Head of Corporate Customer Sales for Zurich International Life, Middle East.
“It’s important to get people in the UAE to think about their pensions because research shows that many expatriates have no pension provision in place and only frozen pensions back in their home country, which in years to come will not provide adequate income. So this needs supplementing and this is where we can help. Companies, can set up a scheme like MAGNUS – and offer people an easy way to plan for their future and really make a difference,” adds Bird.
