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A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the limitations, imposed by Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act, encourage optimal asset allocation and reduce investment risk for retirement savings when contrasted to discretionary investment. A quantitative risk and return analysis was perfor...

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Main Author: Burgers, Thomas
Other Authors: Willows, Gizelle
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Finance and Tax 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author Burgers, Thomas
author2 Willows, Gizelle
author_browse Burgers, Thomas
Willows, Gizelle
author_facet Willows, Gizelle
Burgers, Thomas
author_sort Burgers, Thomas
collection Thesis
description The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the limitations, imposed by Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act, encourage optimal asset allocation and reduce investment risk for retirement savings when contrasted to discretionary investment. A quantitative risk and return analysis was performed using available data for Regulation 28 compliant funds and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange indices. The analysis considers two hypothetical investors who are identical in all regards other than their choice of investments. The model used a 40 year working and saving horizon, whereby the investors contribute a portion of their income to a retirement savings vehicle of their choice. The savings in these vehicles accumulate and earn real returns until retirement. The analysis uses a life-cycle model (Modigliani & Brumberg,1954) which accumulates capital to the retirement date and retirement withdrawals that result in zero capital at the date of death, which is assumed to be 20 years postretirement. The model is used to analyse the differential return required in order to make investors indifferent between investing in a regulated product which is incentivised through tax credits. The findings indicate that Regulation 28 is effective in reducing the investment risk of retirement savings, however may also force the investor to sacrifice wealth. Discretionary investment may be preferential to an investor depending on the tax bracket the investor is in. Further, the complex calculations required to smooth consumption over the life cycle may contain too many variables for the ordinary individual to compute. This study is limited by assumptions regarding changes in future tax legislation, the time frame of investment returns for discretionary investment and retirement funds, inflation, investor career length and life expectancy.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:15.376Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Department of Finance and Tax
publisherStr Department of Finance and Tax
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/20507 A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model Burgers, Thomas Willows, Gizelle West Darron Financial Management The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the limitations, imposed by Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act, encourage optimal asset allocation and reduce investment risk for retirement savings when contrasted to discretionary investment. A quantitative risk and return analysis was performed using available data for Regulation 28 compliant funds and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange indices. The analysis considers two hypothetical investors who are identical in all regards other than their choice of investments. The model used a 40 year working and saving horizon, whereby the investors contribute a portion of their income to a retirement savings vehicle of their choice. The savings in these vehicles accumulate and earn real returns until retirement. The analysis uses a life-cycle model (Modigliani & Brumberg,1954) which accumulates capital to the retirement date and retirement withdrawals that result in zero capital at the date of death, which is assumed to be 20 years postretirement. The model is used to analyse the differential return required in order to make investors indifferent between investing in a regulated product which is incentivised through tax credits. The findings indicate that Regulation 28 is effective in reducing the investment risk of retirement savings, however may also force the investor to sacrifice wealth. Discretionary investment may be preferential to an investor depending on the tax bracket the investor is in. Further, the complex calculations required to smooth consumption over the life cycle may contain too many variables for the ordinary individual to compute. This study is limited by assumptions regarding changes in future tax legislation, the time frame of investment returns for discretionary investment and retirement funds, inflation, investor career length and life expectancy. 2016-07-20T07:08:49Z 2016-07-20T07:08:49Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20507 eng application/pdf Department of Finance and Tax Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Financial Management
Burgers, Thomas
A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model
title_full A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model
title_fullStr A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model
title_full_unstemmed A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model
title_short A taxing incentive? a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and Regulation 28 in a Life-Cycle Model
title_sort taxing incentive a comparison of retirement saving using discretionary investment and regulation 28 in a life cycle model
topic Financial Management
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20507
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AT burgersthomas taxingincentiveacomparisonofretirementsavingusingdiscretionaryinvestmentandregulation28inalifecyclemodel