Retirement Planning Basics – Financial Goals | Retirement Corpus | Superannuation Benefits

Retirement Planning refers to the process of preparing for financial independence and stability in the later stages of life, typically after one ceases to work full-time. This planning involves a variety of strategies and activities, including:

– Savings and Investments: Building a retirement fund through savings and investments such as retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, etc.), stocks, bonds, and other investment vehicles.
– Expense Estimation: Estimating future living costs and planning for anticipated and unexpected expenses during retirement, including healthcare, housing, and leisure activities.
– Income Planning: Determining potential sources of income in retirement, which could include social security benefits, pensions, annuities, and returns from investments.
– Risk Management: Addressing potential risks such as longevity risk (the risk of outliving one’s savings), market risk, and healthcare needs.
– Tax Planning: Strategizing to minimize tax liabilities during retirement, ensuring more of the saved income is available for use when working income stops.
– Estate Planning: Arranging for the management and disposition of one’s estate after death, which may involve setting up wills, trusts, and other legal documents to ensure assets are distributed according to one’s wishes.

Effective retirement planning requires long-term vision and discipline, and often involves financial advisors or planners to help navigate the complex aspects of financial management and legal considerations to secure a comfortable and sustainable retirement lifestyle.

Table of Contents

1. Need for Retirement Planning
2. Financial Goals and Retirement Planning
3. Retirement Planning
4. Estimating Retirement Corpus
5. Superannuation Benefits to Employees

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1. Need for Retirement Planning

Retirement planning pose a critical role for an individual due to increase in life expectancy. Life expectancy is referred to the number of years an individual is expected to live and is dependent on various factors such as health condition, scientific advancements, etc. With the increase in average life expectancy coupled with difficulty to estimate accurately, has led to the need for retirement planning to sustain expenses post retirement.

For example, X, who is in his 20s, has a total working life of 40 years (assuming 60 years being the retirement age). If the life expectancy is 80 years, then X has to spend 20 years of post retirement life, without any commitment to work. Thus, to sustain the expenses during his retired life, X needs to plan for his retirement.

Retirement planning is not only about money accumulation, but living a life of one’s choice, post retirement. That can happen only when retirement planning is started early in life. People generally make the mistake of waiting for too long to begin and thereby fall short of time for sufficient fund accumulation.

The biggest roadblock for retirement planning is accumulating enough money at retirement. At younger age/during start of the working life, too many responsibilities, such as house, marriage, kids and their associated expenses keep the idea of retirement planning at the back burner. But these responsibilities are the reasons why retirement planning is important. Inflation, taxes, pension receivable by family, and many more factors have to be considered while planning for retirement.

Previously, retirement was looked at a period when a worker is unable to do anything. This can happen by a job loss or a layoff. As time progresses the definition of retirement has also changed and now retirement is defined as a period when there is no work involved. Everyone wants to enjoy their retirement years through travel, leisure, social activities, pursuing hobbies, or spending time with their children. Thus, the definition of retirement has undergone a drastic change where people now look more for relaxation or sometimes changeover of employment which can be financially remunerative too.

Retirement planning, like any other life process, has various phases or stages:

(a) Preparation stage,

(b) Period of Initial Retirement/Pre-retirement stage and

(c) Final Retirement.

These phases are characterized with different aspects that any individual who is planning for his/her retirement has to understand. For instance, the preparation stage includes need for child education, buying house for living, adequate life and health insurance and recognizing the impact of ageing. Similarly, at the pre-retirement phase, physical and psychological changes will happen and one gets familiarize with the retirement regulations and procedures. The final is the retirement phase where one should have completed all necessary arrangements and are in a good position to decide about their life.

However, things are not that simple as it looks. Our society is getting more complex in terms of both its structure and operational challenges. There are various issues connected with the society such as longer life expectancy, decreasing retirement benefits, multiple job changes, rising healthcare cost, etc. which have made retirement planning one of the most important and critical element of financial planning.

All this demands a careful planning for retirement regardless of what stage of life one is in. If retirement planning starts early, one will be able to take steps towards the retirement income he/she wants.

2. Financial Goals and Retirement Planning

Generally, when people plan their financial goals they often mix retirement goal with other financial goals. Goals such as children education, retirement, buying a house or a car, etc. are planned simultaneously. Though all of these goals are important for any individual, there is a difference in meeting retirement goal than any other goals.

Many goals can be met comfortably through loans, if one does not have enough assets accumulated. Based on earnings and work profile, financial institutions approach individuals with their best offers. Thus for all these goals one has easy finance available. That is not the case with retirement, since no company gives loans for meeting retirement needs. Still, most people do not want to talk about it.

Goals like children education have a defined time horizon as they have to be achieved within a specified timeframe. For example, the goal of college education is generally at a horizon of 14 to 15 years from the day the child starts going to school. There is hardly an option to delay this goal by 4 to 5 years if enough funds are not available. However when it comes to retirement often it is delayed for any adjustment towards any other life goals. Take the case above for children education. If adequate funds are not available either loan will be availed or the retirement kitty will be withdrawn, thus delaying retirement goal by few years. This delay in planning for retirement can be catastrophic as financial requirements increases manifold and sometimes difficult to achieve if one misses the early benefits.

3. Retirement Planning

The retirement goal has certain features that are unique to it. It is the goal with the longest accumulation and distribution periods and requires the largest corpus¹.

Though the income required to meet expenses in retirement can be defined with certainty only close to the time of transition to retirement, the accumulation of the corpus has to be done from the beginning of an individual’s working years. There are many variables in estimating the goal and these variables are likely to change multiple times given the long periods associated with the goal. Therefore, it becomes important to put in place adequate rigour in determining the variables that affect the retirement goal and periodic monitoring to incorporate changes, if any, into the goal.

The process of determining the retirement goal is about defining the income that will be required to meet living expenses in the period when there is no income being earned from employment. Once this is done, then the planning process deals with how to accumulate the corpus required, and use this corpus to generate the income. The steps involved in retirement planning process are as follows:

(a) Determine expenses in retirement planning: The first step in retirement planning process is to determine the expenses that have to be met in retirement. The expense in retirement is unlikely to be the same as prior to retirement. The categories of expense heads during the retirement phase includes housing (including utilities, maintenance cost, taxes), living expenses (food and personal upkeep), medical care, transportation, recreational expenses and insurance (life, health, disability) and taxes.

(b) Determine income requirement in retirement: While determining the income requirements in retirement, one needs to consider a few factors such as maintaining their standard of living in retired life, the expenses to be incurred in retirement, the inflation rates, etc.

(c) Time horizon: Time plays an important role in retirement planning. The time periods that are central to calculating the retirement corpus are:

1. Years to retirement: This is the period from the current point in time to the year of retirement. Another way to calculate it is as the period between current age and retirement age. With every passing year, this period will reduce as long as the year/age of retirement have not changed. The ‘years to retirement’ is important to be able to determine the cost of expenses that have to be met in retirement. The effects of inflation on cost will depend on the years to retirement. Lower the number, lower will be the effect of inflation. This number is also important in the calculation of the periodic savings required to accumulate the corpus required to fund the expenses in retirement. Longer the period, greater will be the compounding effects, and lower will be the allocation from savings required for the retirement.

2. Years in/during retirement: The years in/during retirement are the number of years from the beginning of retirement to the end of life for which an income has to be secured. This period cannot be defined precisely. However, life expectancy can be broadly estimated based on factors such as average life expectancy in the country for the specific gender, health conditions, genetic factors, lifestyle habits and so on. The years for which funding has to be provided will determine the corpus required. Underestimating the years, or longevity risk, will mean that there may not be enough money to last the retirement years.

(d) Determine the retirement corpus: The retirement corpus that will generate the income required in retirement is to be calculated. The variables considered in such calculation are:

1. The periodic income required
2. The expected rate of inflation
3. The rate of return expected to be generated by the corpus
4. The period of retirement, i.e. the period for which income has to be provided by the corpus.

3.1 Impact of Inflation

Inflation is a general rise in prices of goods and services over a period of time. Over time, as the cost of goods and services increase, the value of one unit of money will go down and the same amount of money will not be able to purchase as much as it could have earlier i.e. last month or last year. Inflation eats away the purchasing power of money over time.
Inflation impacts retirement planning in two ways:

1. At the time of calculating the income required, the value of the current expenses has to be adjusted for inflation to arrive at the cost of the expenseat the time of retirement. For instance, if consumer goods prices rise 6 percent a year over the next 30 years, items that cost Rs. 100 today would cost Rs. 179 in 10 years, Rs. 321 in 20 years and Rs. 574 in 30 years.

2. This figure is true for the beginning of the retirement period. Over the retirement years, the income required to meet the same level of expenses would not be constant but would go up due to inflation. The corpus created to fund income during retirement will have to consider the escalation in cost of living during the period in which pension is drawn. The increase in expenses has to be considered while calculating the retirement corpus else there is a risk of the retirement being under-funded. If you’re planning to live on Rs. 60,000 a month at the start of retirement, a 6 percent inflation rate means that in 10 years you would actually need Rs. 1,07,451 a month, and in 20 years you’d need Rs. 1,92,428 a month to cover the same expenses.

3. While the standard rate of inflation may be appropriate to calculate the future cost of living expenses, other expenses, such as health costs and travel, typically increase at a higher rate.

3.2 The Expected Rate of Return

While estimating the corpus required to generate the retirement, it has to be kept in mind that this corpus will be invested to earn a return both at the time of accumulation and at the time of distribution, and this return will contribute towards the corpus that will be used to provide the income in retirement. The contribution that has to be made towards the retirement corpus from savings will be lower to the extent of the return generated. The size of the corpus that has to be in place at the start of retirement can be lower to the extent that these funds will generate a return through the retirement period. Higher the rate of return that the funds are expected to earn, lower will be the required corpus. However, a higher return will come with a higher risk. Investors may be willing to take higher risk in the accumulation period for higher return. But, in the distribution stage of retirement, the ability to take risk with the savings will reduce.

The rate of inflation and the expected rate of return on investments act in opposite directions on the amount of retirement corpus required. While the rate of inflation pushes up the expenses and therefore the amount of retirement savings required to fund the income in retirement, the return that the corpus invested will generate, will reduce the savings required. The real or effective rate of return that the investment will generate, will then be the expected return adjusted for inflation.

Inflation adjusted rate or real rate of return is the periodic rate of return on an investment after adjustment for inflation.

Inflation – Adjusted Return = (1 + Return)/(1 + Inflation Rate) – 1

4. Estimating Retirement Corpus

There are 2 methods through which the income in post retirement years can be estimated.

• Replacement Ratio Method
• Expense Protection Method

4.1 Replacement Ratio Method in Retirement Planning

Here it is assumed that the standard of living remains same as just before one enters the retirement phase. This helps in defining the target much easily and more accurately. For example, if one is at 58 years of age and is earning Rs. 1,50,000 p.m. then the retirement should maintain this income. Thus, assumption of standard of living becomes an important factor in estimating the retirement income. If income is Rs. 2,00,000 and standard 80% replacement ratio is assumed for retirement then one will have to plan for Rs. 1,60,000 income in the first year of retirement. This income is then increased by inflation rate every year to maintain the purchasing power.

Replacement Income (Year 1) = Pre-retirement Income × 0.80

Replacement Income (each subsequent years) = Pre-retirement Income × Annual rate of Inflation (added per year) × 0.80

Let us take an example for easy understanding.

Mr Rajeev (age 50 years) earns Rs. 1,00,000 per month now. He wants to retire at the age of 60 years with 50% of his income as post retirement income.

Let us assume that his income goes up at 10% p.a.

At the time of his retirement, his Income will be Rs. 2,59,374 per annum (i.e. Rs. 1,00,000 × 1.1^10).

Then Replacement Income just after his retirement income will be 2,59,374 × .50 = Rs 1,29,687.

His replacement income will increase by inflation every year to maintain the purchasing power. Here the inflation rate is assumed to be 7% p.a.

Replacement income in the second year of his retirement will be 1,29,687 × 107/100 = 1,38,765 and so on.

Reductions in Living Expense and Taxes

Many expenses tend to reduce at retirement stage, such as housing loan, children education, work related expenses etc. while few other expenses such as medical, travel etc. tend to increase. Some long-term savings requirements also cease to exist. Many a times, just after retirement, the income reduces, pushing one into a lower tax bracket, thereby eliminating a good amount of tax liabilities. All these factors, clubbed together, decrease the retirement income of an individual.

Limitations of the Income Replacement Ratio

The more number of years one has for retirement, the less accurate income replacement estimate is likely to be. Still, the earlier one starts calculating it and investing, the lower the interest rate one may need to achieve their wage replacement goal.

4.2 Expense Protection Method in Retirement Planning

This method defines retirement Income based on expenses in retirement. Many people using this method keep a detailed monthly budget. Tracking expenses enables them to have a reasonable understanding of what it will cost to retire.

Adjustments to budgets often must be made. For example, some expenses may increase over a period of time such as, medical expenses, travel, gifting, house maintenance, etc. On the other hand some of the expenses tend to reduce like housing loan repayment, children education expenses, income tax, etc. Once the estimation is done based on the probable expenses to be incurred, the retirement income required is estimated. The estimation is easier for individuals nearing their retirement.

Limitations of the Expense Protection Method

As with the income method, there is also a drawback to the expense method, particularly for those who are many years away from their retirement. With longer period to retire, expense estimation for future becomes difficult. In such cases, estimation of future retirement expenses is done with speculation and so needs to be reviewed periodically.

Let us take an example for easy understanding.

Mr Ashish is earning a monthly income of Rs. 60,000 of which 50% is household expenses. He is 40 years old and is planning to retire at the age of 60 years. He is expecting additional expenses of Rs. 15,000 at his retirement. If we assume inflation at 6% then his expense at the time of retirement will be as below:

5. Superannuation Benefits to Employees

Superannuation is a pension program created by a company for the benefit of its employees. It is also referred to as a company pension plan. Funds deposited in a superannuation account will grow, typically without any tax implications, until retirement or withdrawal.

Once an employer has a superannuation benefit in place for his employees, he has a liability to meet. In India, there is no legislation providing statutory superannuation (pension) benefits except to those employees covered under the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995. The Government bodies, nationalized banks and a very few other organizations are, if they so decide, allowed to pay pension to their employees. All other establishments whether in public or private sector are required to arrange annuities through Life Insurance Corporation of India or any other IRDAI approved life insurance companies. Therefore, an employer can have any one of the following two arrangements:

(1) Payment by the employer; and

(2) Funding through a trust.

5.1 Payment by the Employer

The employer arranges to pay superannuation benefits to its employees through the below mentioned methodologies:

(a) There are occasions when an employer decides to arrange for superannuation benefits for one or a few employees as reward for their dedicated services by paying a lump sum contribution out of the current revenue to buy an immediate annuity from a life insurance company.

(b) The employer has framed a superannuation scheme for his employees and has not created any fund for it and wishes to pay himself the pensionary benefits. It means that employer would, if otherwise allowed by law, pay out the superannuation payments to the retired employees as and when they are due out of the current revenue. Though this may look easy to follow, this is not a satisfactory method for many reasons.

First of all, the likelihood of payment of pension to the employees who have retired will depend upon the financial health of the employer and if the employer does not make enough profits in a year to pay the pension disbursements, the retired employees may not get their pension. This situation is more likely to happen as the pension payout liability will keep on increasing year after year as the number of pensioners receiving superannuation payments increase. The situation would be still worse if an employer goes bankrupt and winds-up the establishment. Hence, this method is not allowed.

The Accounting Standard 15, brought out by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), does not allow companies to provide for the retirement benefits at the time they become due. It insists that all the retirement benefits have to be provided for in the respective year of accrual. Also, Section 2(11) of Insurance Act defines life insurance business in such a way as to include the payment of superannuation allowances and annuities payable out of any fund applicable solely to the relief and maintenance of persons engaged in or who have been engaged in any particular profession, trade or employment or of the dependents of such persons. This has made it obligatory for employers to arrange for payment of superannuation benefits only through a life insurance company registered with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). The question arises as to what is required on the part of the employer during the period till the superannuation benefit of an employee becomes payable. The employer has to create a fund for paying the superannuation benefits to the employees and to set aside funds required for meeting the liability on an accrual basis every year.

5.2 Funding through a Superannuation Trust

The second method of administering a superannuation scheme is to do it through a Trust. The employer should create a Trust for funding the pension liability and appoint Trustees for the purpose. The Trust so created should be irrevocable and should be distinct from the employer. The employer should transfer the contributions for the superannuation benefit (both that of the employer and employees, if the scheme were to be contributory) to the Trust Fund.

5.3 Approved Superannuation Funds

When an employer introduces a superannuation benefit scheme for his employees and contributes funds for the scheme, it is natural that he would like to expense off the contributions that he makes against the profits made by him and pay tax on the reduced profits only. In other words, he would like his contributions to get tax exempt. For getting tax exemption for the contributions to the superannuation fund, established for the employees, the employer has to get the fund approved by the Commissioner of Income Tax. Once the fund is approved by the Commissioner of Income Tax, the employer can treat the contributions made to the fund, within the limits prescribed in the Income-tax Act, as business expense and deduct it from the profits made for Income Tax purposes.The Income-tax Act (IT Act) defines approved superannuation fund as “a superannuation fund or any part of a superannuation fund which has been and continues to be approved by the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner in accordance with the rules contained in Part B of the Fourth Schedule”. The rules contained in Part B of the Fourth Schedule of IT Act states that in order that a superannuation fund may receive and retain approval as defined under the IT Act:

• The fund shall be established under an irrevocable trust in connection with a trade or undertaking carried on in India and not less than 90% of the employees shall be employed in India.
• The fund should have for its sole purpose the provision of annuities for employees in the trade or undertaking on their retirement at or after a specified age or on their becoming incapacitated prior to such retirement, or for the widows, children or dependents of persons who are or have been such employees on the death of those persons.
• The employer should be a contributor to the fund.
• All annuities, pensions and other benefits shall be payable only in India.

Further, the Income-tax Act provides the following benefits to the approved superannuation fund, for both the employers and the employees:

• Section 10(13): Any payment from an approved superannuation fund, made on the death of a beneficiary; or to an employee in lieu of or in commutation of an annuity on his retirement at or after a specified age or on his becoming incapacitated prior to such retirement; or by way of refund of contributions on the death of a beneficiary, shall not be included in computing the total income of a previous year of any person. This makes it clear that payments made out of an approved superannuation fund to the beneficiaries upon the death of the member and also the commuted value of the pension payable on retirement of the employee after ascertaining the age as well as payments made on the retirement of an employee due to becoming incapacitated are exempt from Income Tax.
• Section 10(25)(iii): Any income received by the trustees on behalf of an approved superannuation fund shall not be included in computing the total income of the trust. This makes the funds of an approved superannuation fund to be accumulated in a tax-free environment.
• Section 36(iv): Any sum paid by the assessee as an employer by way of contribution towards an approved superannuation fund, subject to such limits as may be prescribed for the purpose of approving the superannuation fund and subject to such conditions that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) may specify, will be allowed as deduction in the computation of business income of the employer.
• Section 80C: Any contributions made by an employee to an approved superannuation fund are eligible as deduction in computing the taxable income, subject to a ceiling as prescribed by Income-tax Act.

5.4 Trustees Responsibilities

The trustees of an approved Superannuation Trust Fund (also referred to as Superannuation Scheme) have many responsibilities in the administration of the funds, payment of benefits along with legal and tax responsibilities.

These are:

a. To have periodical meetings of the Trustees to review the performance of the Trust and to keep records of the minutes.

b. To keep in touch with the Company and inform the employer the decisions taken by the Trustees.

c. To collect the amount of contributions from the employer as per the rules of the scheme or get it calculated by an Actuary in case of a defined benefit scheme and then requests the employer to pay it.

d. To invest the Trust money as per the prescribed pattern of investment given in IT Rules.

e. To realize the interest earned on the investments and reinvest it as per the prescribed pattern.

f. To make or enter into an arrangement to ensure pension benefits to the employee/beneficiary as per the options exercised.

g. To deduct tax at source from the annuity payments wherever applicable and remit them to IT Authorities or advise the life insurance company to deduct tax at source before releasing annuity payments as the case may be.

h. To prepare the annual accounts of the Trust, get them audited and submit to the IT authorities.

Dive Deeper:
Retirement Planning Concepts – Process | Goal | Financial Security

1. The accumulation stage is the stage in which the saving and investment for the retirement corpus is made. The distribution stage of retirement is when the corpus created in the accumulation stage is employed to generate the income required to meet expenses in retirement