Frequently Asked Questions

• Just SA is a specialist retirement income insurance company regulated by the Prudential Authority and Financial Sector Conduct Authority under the name Just Retirement Life (South Africa) Ltd.
• We focus on product innovation in the South African annuity market to provide a fair price and financial security for retirees' income needs.
• Just SA was founded in 2015 as a subsidiary of the UK-listed Just Group plc, a specialist financial services group.
• We have been appointed as an annuity provider for over 100 retirement funds in South Africa. Our business partners are significant financial services brands with strong track records.

Read more About Just SA

We offer retirement income solutions to South African retirees that will help to protect them from running out of money in retirement. We believe you deserve a retirement free from financial concerns. Our focus is on treating each client fairly, improving their outcomes at and in retirement, and providing a guaranteed annuity income for life. 

We offer four guaranteed annuities

• Just Lifetime Income (JuLI): A with-profit annuity designed to provide annual payment increases that target inflation, or a percentage above inflation, to keep up with the cost of living.
• Just Level Income: This annuity provides a level income that does not increase over time.
• Just Fixed Escalation Income: This annuity provides an income that will increase annually by a chosen percentage (between 1% and 10%).
• Just Inflation-Linked Income: This annuity provides an income with a future increase in line with annual inflation.

Performance-linked increases

What makes our Just Lifetime Income (JuLI) different to other with-profit annuities is that increases are linked to the performance of an independent underlying investment portfolio managed by specialist asset managers. 

Enhanced annuities

JuLI is offered as an enhanced annuity, which means we use underwriting to assess life expectancy. Just SA is the only insurer in South Africa to offer underwriting at retirement. Underwriting at retirement is a fair way of ensuring retirees get the right income, for life, and the highest possible starting income for their retirement savings.

An asset class within a living annuity

JuLI is the first lifetime income portfolio to provide longevity protection within a living annuity. This is done through blending – combining a living annuity with a life annuity to create a blended annuity. With blending, the best features of life annuities and living annuities are combined into one solution, giving retirees a guaranteed income from the life annuity component to cover their essential monthly expenses and the flexibility that a living annuity offers.

Two of our products can be used very effectively as part of a client’s general retirement income planning but are also open to anyone who would find them useful before retirement:

The Just Term Certain Income pays a guaranteed income of a predetermined amount for a chosen period. 

This type of annuity could be helpful for someone seeking a guaranteed income stream for a set period or someone approaching retirement and looking for a secure, predictable income supplement until other sources of income begin. It could also be useful in managing the financial affairs of a minor who has received a lump-sum payment and requires a series of payments for a set period.

The Just Structured Endowment is a linked endowment insurance policy that provides a return of capital plus a fixed net-of-tax return after five years, based on the performance of the underlying assets.

This policy could be useful for someone wanting a tax-efficient way to save or someone looking for a fixed return as part of their overall asset allocation strategy. It could also be useful for someone who is managing assets as part of an estate. The investment would be paid directly to the beneficiaries, instead of waiting for the estate to be wound up.

Email us on sales@justsa.co.za and we will guide you through the process.

What is the Solvency Capital Requirement?

A life annuity is a financial product providing policyholders with guaranteed income for life. As a South African life annuity provider, Just SA and its peers must follow regulatory standards to make sure we have enough money (capital) to pay policyholders and remain solvent, even in tough economic times.

The Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR) is therefore a reflection of this capacity and acts as a safety net or a shock absorber.

The SCR is calculated using stress tests that simulate extreme but plausible scenarios across various risk categories — such as market, credit, operational, and underwriting risks.

How Just SA Manages its SCR

As an early-stage life insurer, we expect significant growth in terms of business volumes. To write these volumes, we need capital to manage and grow the business while still meeting regulatory requirements to make good on our product promises. Maintaining a stable and well-buffered SCR is therefore essential for stakeholder confidence.

Just SA has a robust capital buffer, well above the regulatory minimum. This buffer ensures Just SA can withstand negative events and market movements and is held in liquid money market instruments to ensure immediate availability. Just SA generally holds capital in the region of 200% of its SCR, in line with other South African insurance companies. It significantly exceeds our own risk appetite limit, which is well above the regulatory limit and is deemed acceptable by our shareholder.

While the SCR is monitored and reviewed monthly by Just SA management, the ratio is published twice a year. Quarterly and annual regulatory returns are also completed and submitted to the Prudential Authority. An independent actuary from Deloitte validates these assessments.

How Just Group plc supports our SCR

Just Group plc also maintains an SCR that is well above UK regulatory limits. Just Group plc plays a critical role in supporting Just SA’s solvency capital requirements, ensuring the South African subsidiary remains financially robust and compliant with regulatory expectations. 

Just Group plc issued a legally binding and enforceable letter of financial support to the Prudential Authority of the South African Reserve Bank. This letter commits the Group to maintaining Just SA in a solvent position. The structure of this support is designed to provide regulatory comfort without compromising capital efficiency.