Establish a sound financial foundation

Your greatest asset is your ability to earn an income. It is important to prepare for the unexpected. When you cannot work anymore, or you need permanent care, permanent disability cover ensures that you can maintain your standard of living and pay for additional costs such as medical expenses or rehabilitation.

Your income enables you to maintain your lifestyle – from everyday expenses that cover the home you live in to providing for your family with food, healthcare and education. Income protection ensures that you can maintain your lifestyle without affecting your future financial plans. Your retirement planning and emergency funds remain untouched. Income protection replaces a portion of your income, and pays out until you can start working again.

As with other forms of risk cover, severe illness cover provides for your wellbeing when you need it most. You will receive a cash lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of the specified medical conditions or injuries listed in the policy. This means you can maintain your independence, as the policy reduces your financial burden.

Paying for a child’s education is one of the most significant investments you can make. It provides a measure of freedom to choose from a wider range of opportunities, and gives the young person a boost early in life. Your Wealth Specialist will structure an investment that makes best use of the long term, while ensuring that there is some measure of protection against market downturns.

Contingent liability is an insurance product that settles all of the company’s outstanding debt if the business owner passes away or becomes disabled. For business owners, this ensures that company liabilities do not affect their personal estates.

Some individuals play a critical role in the success of a business, and in many cases the business will not be able to exist without this person. Key person cover is a form of insurance cover that pays out when the person passes away or becomes disabled. With the funds, the company can provide adequate critical skills training to ensure the continuance of the business.

Investing in a unit trust is an attractive way to get exposure to financial markets. Your regular or lump sum contribution is used to buy a basket of shares on a stock exchange, and your return is based on the performance of this basket of shares. Not all unit trusts are created equal. We have partnered with a select group of investment houses that provide customised solutions to our clients. Depending on your risk profile and investment goals, unit trusts may form part of your Carrick portfolio.

Tax-free savings accounts and other tax-free investment vehicles are among the best options for long-term investment and saving strategies. The returns from these investments are exempt from paying income tax, dividends tax or capital gains tax. The maximum contribution over your lifetime into a tax-free savings account is R500 000, with an annual limit of R36 000.

For discerning investors, a share portfolio is the cornerstone of their investment strategy. With selected key holdings they define their position in the market, and often the rest of their portfolio is built around it. At Carrick, our Wealth Specialist can provide expert advice to manage your share portfolio, and we may also appoint a discretionary fund manager to provide in-depth analysis and hands-on management.

Our structured products include defined capital and income guarantees, together with offshore diversification by virtue of being linked to developed market equity indices. All the elements of the structured note are typically protected in a single capital-protected endowment policy. Your initial investment is guaranteed, carries no currency risk and offers excellent tax efficiencies.

If you belong to a company-sponsored pension fund, a preserver fund is put in place when you change jobs, or when you near retirement age, but you do not want to make use of the funds. Your investment and tax benefits remain intact, and you can transfer your funds back into a retirement vehicle at a later stage.

With a company-sponsored group scheme, your contributions and those of your employer are invested in a tax-efficient manner. At retirement, you can pay out a third of the pension as a lump sum, and the remaining portion is reinvested in a living annuity, allowing you to draw a regular income from your retirement.

When you reach retirement age, a living annuity provides you with a regular income from your retirement funds. Depending on your financial situation, your income can be as little as 2.5% per annum, with a maximum of 17.5% per annum. When you pass away, the remaining funds in your annuity form part of your estate.

A life annuity is an insurance product that guarantees a monthly pension for the rest of your life. The product safeguards you against the risks of living longer than expected, or depleting your funds too quickly because of poor investment returns. When you pass away, no funds are passed on to your estate, and any remaining savings are lost.