Retirement used to be a once-a-year conversation. You’d meet with your advisor, crunch some numbers, and hope your projections still made sense 12 months later. However, life can be unpredictable, and it doesn’t move in annual reviews. Raises happen, expenses go up, markets shift, and in the space between those meetings, your financial plan can suddenly fall behind.
This is the reason FNB is reshaping how it supports consumers who are preparing for retirement. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the bank is increasingly taking a real-time approach to retirement planning – one that offers continuous guidance and adapts as life happens.
We have tools that can help you measure whether you are on track with your savings or retirement journey. Moreover, this helps customers make the necessary adjustments to ensure that they don’t fall behind with their savings and retirement goals, explains Mark Nasila, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at FNB Risk Office. “We know that a yearly check-in with one’s advisor is no longer good enough to secure the retirement outcomes that our clients need, so we’re using technology to turn retirement planning into a guided, ongoing process that recalibrates dynamically as people’s circumstances and requirements evolve.”
At the heart of FNB’s approach is the ability to integrate and interpret a vast amount of customer financial data in real time. The bank’s AI systems analyse everything, from income patterns and bonuses to savings trends and transactional behaviours, enabling it to provide tailored financial recommendations that match each client’s unique situation and evolve as they progress on their financial journey.
For example, if a customer receives a salary increase, the system identifies it and can suggest an appropriate adjustment in savings and investments contributions. Similarly, if a client is behind on savings goals we have the technology to help prompt customers to adjust their contributions so they can meet their goals. If a retirement shortfall is projected based on current savings behaviours, FNB can provide clear, actionable, real-time guidance on how much more they need to save, whether as a lump sum or recurring top-up.
“AI allows us to access financial information and dynamically suggest updates based on our clients’ financial needs whether it is contributing more towards your short or long plan goals” explained Samukelo Zwane, Head of Product at FNB Wealth and Investments. “We now have the immediate insights to have the necessary discussions with our clients when for example their salary has increased, which means they could take personalised action to align with their financial plans. That kind of timely recalibration is the future of financial advice.”
A key part of FNB’s solution is its evolving robo-advice platform. Currently in version 1.1, the AI-driven advice system uses advanced algorithms to recommend appropriate funds based on an individual client’s goals and timelines. Clients are shown projections of their investment balances over their goal terms, alongside real-time feedback on whether they’re on track to achieve those outcomes. The bank also calculates projected shortfalls and recommends ways to close them, making the entire process more transparent and easier to act on.
But the guidance doesn’t stop there. Predictive analytics are also being used to simulate retirement scenarios. For example, if a client is considering withdrawing R10 000 from the savings pot of their retirement fund now, the bank can offer details on how this action will affect the longevity of their retirement savings. Or, clients can get detailed comparisons of how long their retirement capital will last, under different investment strategies and drawdown percentages.
“Going forward, we aim to empower our clients to be able to use predictive analytics to track and measure their goals and make the necessary adjustments,” Zwane points out, “but with FNB’s AI-enabled guidance model, it can happen instantly- giving our clients immediate insights they can use to make smarter decisions.”
Zwane says that this approach represents the first phase in FNB’s broader AI-enhanced retirement planning strategy, which will also include robo-investment strategies, fraud protection for retirees, dynamic withdrawal planning and longevity risk modelling.
“We’re not just building another retirement calculator,” he emphasises, “we’re engineering a responsive, intelligent, digitally enabled system that adapts with our clients and helps them stay in control of their finances and their futures.”
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