Retirement Planning
Build a retirement income that currency depreciation cannot erode.
Retirement planning in Africa presents a unique challenge: you are saving in a currency that is likely to depreciate, for a retirement that may be spent across multiple jurisdictions. A pension denominated entirely in kwacha, naira, or cedi is a pension that is quietly losing value every year. We build retirement strategies that protect your future purchasing power.
The African Retirement Challenge
Most African professionals rely on employer pension schemes that invest predominantly in local assets. While these schemes serve a purpose, they expose your retirement to three compounding risks: currency depreciation, local market concentration, and inflation that consistently outpaces returns.
Consider a Zambian professional who retires with ZMW 5 million in a local pension. At today’s exchange rate, that is approximately $185,000. But if the kwacha continues its historical depreciation trend, that sum could be worth $100,000 or less in real terms within a decade of retirement — precisely when you need it most.
The solution is to build a parallel retirement strategy offshore, denominated in hard currency, that complements your local pension and provides a reliable income floor regardless of what happens to the local economy.
Our Retirement Strategy
We build retirement portfolios in three phases. During the accumulation phase (typically 10–25 years before retirement), we focus on growth — global equities, emerging market exposure, and alternative assets that compound over time. During the transition phase (5–10 years before retirement), we gradually shift towards income-generating assets and reduce volatility. During the drawdown phase (retirement itself), we construct a sustainable income strategy that balances growth with regular withdrawals.
Throughout all phases, the portfolio is denominated in the currency you will need in retirement — typically US dollars, with allocations to pounds or euros if you plan to spend time in the UK or Europe.
Retirement Modelling
We do not guess at what you will need. We build detailed retirement models that account for your desired lifestyle, expected expenses (including healthcare, travel, and family support), inflation assumptions, and life expectancy. We stress-test these models against adverse scenarios — currency shocks, market downturns, and unexpected expenses.
The result is a clear, quantified plan that tells you exactly how much you need to save, how it should be invested, and what income you can expect in retirement. We update this model annually as your circumstances evolve.
We conduct rigorous due diligence on every alternative investment we recommend. We assess the manager’s track record, investment process, team stability, fee structure, and alignment of interests. We only recommend managers with institutional-grade governance and a minimum five-year track record. We never recommend alternatives for the sake of complexity — only when they genuinely improve the risk-return profile of your portfolio.
Our Process
01
Retirement Assessment
02
Lifestyle Modelling
03
Strategy Implementation
04
Annual Reviews
Next step
Every strategy begins with a conversation. We would welcome the opportunity to understand your circumstances and show you what is possible.
Key Facts
10–30 years
USD, GBP, EUR
Annual
Included
Flexible
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