RETIREMENT BENEFITS
Demystifying Retirement
Benefits Among
Professionals
By Hosea Kili, OGW
T
his is an abridged version of the
key note address delivered at the
1st Nairobi Marketers’ Nite 2018
series held in April, 2018 by Mr. Hosea
Kili, Group Managing Director, CPF
Group under the banner: Demystifying
Retirement Benefits among Professionals!
We are working through what’s arguably
the biggest change in the retirement
benefits industry. In the last decade,
anxiety over the costs of employer
sponsored retirement plans has risen,
people are living longer, investment
market conditions remain volatile, the cost
of healthcare has ballooned, regulations
are tightening and state pension provision
remains inadequate in most countries. In
fact, numerous studies continue to portend
low penetration rates for retirement
benefits products, with some reporting
that an excess of 86% of Kenyans do not
have a pension arrangement or access to
retirement benefits.
At the same time, the nature of the modern
workforce is changing dramatically, with
far more diversity and less predictability
with regards to individual career paths,
family, and the form as well as timing of
retirement!
This topic elicited heated debate with
one pundit asserting that our Young
Professionals are collecting pictures and
memories for social media and not building
reserves for tomorrow. It is evident that
many people don’t make any plan for
retirement ending up broke, stressed, and
even dying soon after separation from
the employer due to mental and financial
unpreparedness. This discussion helped
unravel critical insights for professionals;
in pursuit of laying a credible foundation
for the retirement journey from whatever
point one might be in their path and more
so for the younger teams.
Overview
The resounding You Only Live Once
(YOLO) philosophy popular among the
youth - connotes the high importance
and relevance of this topic to the youth.
Without taking relevant measures, there
will be a perpetual cycle of poverty. The
government cannot and does not always
The astounding reality among most of us
professionals is that 90% cannot sustain the
same lifestyle after retirement, 50% look
forward to depending on our children as our
retirement plan, 30% will die of stress as they
never planned on what to do when they retire,
and 15% keep on working because we want to
maintain the same lifestyle in retirement.
12 MAL24/18 ISSUE
bail everyone out. For instance, currently
there is the cash transfer program, rolled
out as an assistance program for the aged
in society. However, the coverage is not
100% owing to various factors and many
Kenyans continue to languish in poverty.
A majority of professionals lead comfortable
lives while still in employment; but one
year down the line after retirement, there
is always the “Serikali Saidia” cry because
no substantive measures have been put in
place to safeguard their future - either by
the individual or the organizations they
serve. This perpetual cycle is not only
detrimental to the country’s economic
growth, it also serves to break down the
social fabric in society.
Retirement For Professionals
Even though I have a background in Legal
practice - being an advocate of the High
Court; I have slowly morphed into an
expert in matters finance and retirement.
In fact, most of my friends call me Mr.
Pension because I am very passionate about
retirement benefits. I would be a good
president of France or another country in
Europe, because the governments there
fight with the people to increase the
retire ment age so that there is more saving
done by the individual, while the people
want to decrease the retirement age by
about 2 to 3yrs to enjoy their retirement.
In Kenya many of us don’t want to retire
because our retirement plans are not that
rosy or they are non-existent.
Welcome to the most boring story in
Kenya - the story about retirement. It is
not a fun topic by any shade, but, today,