South Africans in the formal sector must navigate the risks from an array of financial products and services through their adult lives, but this requires an unattainable level of financial literacy or unaffordable financial advice. A particular problem is that planning for retirement assumes that the equity market is the most suitable avenue for investment. It exposes individuals to investment and longevity risks they may not fully understand.

Join us for a presentation by Anthony Asher, previously head of the actuarial program at Wits and currently Chair of PPS Mutual in Australia, a director of Fresh Hope Communities, the aged care and accommodation arm of the Churches of Christ in NSW, on the Institute’s Audit and Risk Committee and active in retirement research with the Institute and in a part time position at the University of New South Wales.

Based on a paper to the Australian Actuaries Institute, this session presents a framework for evaluating system shortfalls and draws on social, economic, and engineering control system literature to propose alternative risk management strategies, including explicit recognition of heuristics in decision-making and separating optimisation and stabilisation processes.