Some  Bahamians  believe  that national insurance is enough, leaning on it as their primary source of income. However  it was created to supplement retirement savings.

  According to Cleora Farquharson, Royal Fidelity Assistant Vice President of Pension Services, most Bahamians work  30  to  40 years and then live diminished lives.

“As Bahamians,  we don’t save, we don’t have money for immediate needs as oppose to retirement…” says Ms. Farquharson. Now she says  the Royal Fidelity family wants  to get the discussion going on this topic so that people know how much they must save and make those steps toward saving. 

Royal fidelity hosted a Pension Breakfast at the Baha Mar Convention Centre  yesterday  where all clients and potential  clients were invited and made aware of factors like inflation, age groups and wages that affect pensions. 

Ms. Farquharson says that the average person does not realize how much is needed for retirement and don’t think about it until they are in retirement.  

She says that time is not on our side  and starting from now it  is a necessity.

The staff of Royal Fidelity gave Bahamians options on how to live great during retirement. They introduced their new product, the Royal Fidelity Personal Retirement account, which is for more sophisticated investors. Customers would present Royal Fidelity with $100,000 minimum and it is invested on their behalf. As they live into retirement, they can obtain monthly, quarterly, annual, or semi-annual payments , so that they can take care of themselves during retirement. 

Royal Fidelity President, Michael Anderson in agreement  with Ms. Farquharson says that pension participation is very low, and Bahamians have no pension when they retire, relying heavily on NIB and family.

He says the level of unfunded persons is a disaster. “It’s a catastrophe really, it’s a crisis. When people say $3 to 4 billion quietly, it doesn’t mean its not a big number to deal with…” says Anderson.

He said  Bahamians have paid “lip service” to this issue and we have done so for a while,  with the issue growing behind us. Mr.  Anderson says that this is not tomorrow’s problem, it is today’s.

He  hopes that his organization  can work with the government in solving pensions and other issues by putting plans in place with pension reforms and legislations.

“It  is  much more about where we are as a country today in the world with pensions.  We are in a dire situation and we need to change this on a government level and in the private sector,” said Mr. Anderson. 

Director of Labour, John Pinder declared  that this seminar brings the importance of putting aside money just as you enter the work place. He hopes that the government will start to educate younger public servants of this  to avoid the issues that we face now.