Maiden Inspenonline summit to promote retirement without tears

THE Inspenonline maiden retirement summit aims at spotlighting what employers, employees, and self-employed should do to ensure that people walk into post-retirement life adequately prepared.

The event is expected to attract experts from different fields of endeavour to brainstorm on preventing tears and sorry post-retirement situations for those who have contributed to the country’s development.

The summit which will be held next week in Lagos is tagged: “2024 Inspenonline Retirement Summit” and has the theme: “Promoting Retirement without Tears through Insurance and Pension”.

It is expected to spotlight what employers, employees, and self-employed should do to ensure that people walk into post-retirement life adequately prepared.

In a statement, the Publisher of Inspenonline, Chuks Udo Okonta said the Summit was informed by findings which showed that about 90 percent of retirees enter post-retirement life without knowing what awaits them.

He highlighted that investigations have shown that most organisations do not prepare their employees for post-retirement life, adding that few organisations that do organised training/seminars for employees, only observe crash training for them one or two months before leaving their jobs.

Okonta also said that the summit would help open the space for post-retirement programmes and training, which are presently non-existence in the country.

According to him, the event will also spotlight how the citizens can leverage opportunities in the insurance and pension sectors to plan for a comfortable retirement life, noting that it would also help identify challenges that have hindered people from enjoying a good life in retirement and underpin the roles to be played by the government, insurance and pension regulators, insurance and pension practitioners, citizens and other stakeholders.

He informed that the Summit is open to the general public, stressing that it would help bridge the knowledge gap in retirement planning.

Mr. Okonta said the past President of Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN)/former Managing Director of Sterling Assurance Limited, Fatai Lawal, will be the Chairman of the event, while the Keynote Speaker will be the Founder & Managing Director of ZER Consulting Africa, Adeolu Adewumi-Zer.

He noted that experts in the field of retirement, who will be unveiled soon, have been engaged as discussants and Special Guests for the event, adding that the event will also be used to officially unveil the Insurfeel Initiative, which he is one of the promoters.

According to him, the Insurfeel Initiative enables the uninformed and uninsured to experience the impacts of insurance by receiving insurance policies for free through donations by individuals; groups; associations; organisations, and the government.

He pointed out that the Insurfeel Initiative entails the donation of insurance policies to the uninsured, and uninformed, explaining that the idea evolved from research conducted, which showed that people who have had positive experiences on how insurance works seem to believe and easily embrace the system.

This research, he said, necessitated the need to extend insurance experience through the donation of policies to more people to deepen insurance penetration, provide safety, fight poverty, and enhance the insurance industry’s profitability.

He stated that Insurfeel is targeted towards specific individuals, such as students in secondary schools, teachers, and people with distinct impacts on lives and society, and they are selected due to their outstanding performance and contributions to human growth.

Okonta said the Insurfeel initiative is open to people committed to philanthropy, and through Insurfeel, organisations can through Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) donate insurance policies as souvenirs and gifts to deserving members of the public.

According to him, the Insurfeel Initiative provides a platform for insurance companies to donate their products as against the present trend where products from other sectors are donated to the public, stating that this will grow the industry’s premium whilst helping humanity.