True wealth starts with how you spend today.
Many people think financial planning is a once-off event that ends with pie charts. It's not. It's a comprehensive, ongoing approach that starts with your dreams, builds a plan to get there, then tracks progress and recommends changes where needed.
Local & Global Investments
In an uncertain financial landscape, where volatile markets and credit chaos are facts of life, handling dramatic change with calm and confidence is essential. We offer a wide range of investment planning products, placing emphasis on understanding each investor's risk profile and their short, medium and long-term objectives.
- Local unit trusts, ETFs and direct equity portfolios across major asset managers
- Offshore investment structuring for rand-hedge and currency diversification
- Tax-free savings accounts and discretionary investment wrappers
- Quarterly performance reviews benchmarked against your original plan
Retirement Plan
Our Retirement Annuities give you more than conventional retirement solutions. Whether you invest a lump-sum or pay in monthly contributions, we have a plan that's right for you — with tax-efficient contributions and safeguarded funds protected from creditors.
- Retirement annuities — lump-sum or monthly contributions
- Tax benefits: contributions reduce your taxable income; returns are tax-free while invested
- Living annuity and life annuity comparisons at retirement
- Income-in-retirement modelling, stress-tested against inflation and longevity
Trusts
There are many reasons to establish corporate and trust structures — primarily to achieve asset protection and to optimise estate, succession, tax planning and corporate structuring. A trust is the only legal entity in South Africa that can offer an individual total asset protection.
- Inter-vivos (living) and testamentary trust establishment
- Trustee appointment guidance and governance structuring
- Asset transfer planning into existing or new trust structures
- Annual trust administration and compliance coordination
Estate Planning
Proper estate planning ensures your estate is set up in a tax-efficient way that benefits you during your lifetime and your beneficiaries after you die — settling debts, providing income for dependants, and minimising taxes.
- Ensuring enough cash exists to pay outstanding debts and executor fees
- Minimising estate duty (20%), CGT and executor fees (3.5% of gross estate)
- Coordinating your will, trusts and beneficiary nominations
- Executor selection guidance and fee benchmarking
Wills
Your last will and testament is one of the most important documents you will ever sign. Without a valid will you die intestate and the laws of intestate succession apply — the law designates beneficiaries according to specific kinship, not your wishes.
- Will drafting and safe custody
- Guardian nomination guidance for minor children
- Reviews triggered after marriage, divorce, birth or major asset changes
- Coordination with trust and estate structures to avoid conflicting instructions
Education Plans
An education gives your children choices in today's competitive world. Will there be enough funds for private education, special needs or to study abroad? We build dedicated, ring-fenced investment plans so education costs don't derail your other financial goals.
- Fee-inflation-adjusted projections per child, per institution type
- Dedicated investment vehicles separate from retirement and general savings
- Covers local and international study options
Preservation Funds
A preservation fund is designed specifically to invest the proceeds of your pension or provident fund when you resign, are retrenched or dismissed. It preserves both your retirement investment and the tax benefits that would otherwise be lost.
- Pension and provident preservation fund setup on resignation or retrenchment
- One-off withdrawal guidance — used wisely, since it's a once-off option per fund
- Investment strategy review on transfer, rather than a default fund choice
Consolidating a fragmented retirement portfolio for a business-owning couple
Two preservation funds, an old retirement annuity, and a discretionary portfolio sitting across three providers, with no shared strategy. We consolidated into a single coordinated plan, restructured for tax efficiency, and aligned the couple's retirement date with their business succession timeline.
The result wasn't just tidier paperwork — it was a clearer, lower-cost path to the income they'll actually need.
Wealth Management FAQs
Straight answers to what clients usually ask before their first consultation.
How much money do I need to start working with an advisor? +
There's no minimum. Some clients start with a single retirement annuity; others bring an existing multi-provider portfolio to consolidate. The plan scales to where you are today.
Are you tied to specific product providers? +
No. Afken Advisory Services is independent and product-agnostic — we recommend across the major South African asset managers and insurers based on what fits your plan, not a sales target.
How often will my plan actually get reviewed? +
Annually as standard, plus triggered reviews after life events — marriage, a new child, a business sale, retirement, or significant market shifts that change your risk position.
I already have a will — do I still need an estate plan? +
A will states intentions; an estate plan makes sure your estate can actually fund those intentions — covering liquidity, estate duty and how your assets, trusts and policies interact.
Can you manage investments I hold with another provider? +
Yes — we regularly review and, where it benefits you, consolidate or transfer existing portfolios into a single coordinated strategy rather than leaving them to drift unmanaged.
Speak to a wealth advisor today.
A first consultation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.