VM Pensions enters underserved public transport market
Published:Friday | February 18, 2022 | 12:13 AM
VM Pensions Management has formed an alliance with the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services, TODSS, to serve as the official pension provider for transport operators in its network.
The individual retirement scheme, which was launched on Thursday, will target some 5,000 transport operators registered with TODSS, then extend beyond it later to another 30,000 individuals that make up the public transport service sector.
TODSS, whose membership includes providers of taxi services, functions as a lobby and promotionalorganisation for the transportation sector, focusing primarily on research, training, logistics, road safety and membership representation. The association has been in existence for past 19 years.
The TODSS pension scheme is the first specifically targeted at operators in the transport service sector, 75 per cent of whom enter retirement age without sufficient savings, President of the TODSS, Egerton Newman told the Financial Gleaner.
VM Pensions Management Limited sealed the pension deal nearly a year after working closely with the transport group. The two, for example, partnered on a business and investment seminar for TODSS members last July.
“This group is very critical. We put our families in their hands on a daily basis, but when they reach retirement age, they don’t have much to look forward to. And so, this is more than just business for us, it’s about a contribution to national development,” said CEO of VM Pensions Conroy Rose. The annualised yield on VM Pensions’ plans is around four to five per cent.
Those eligible for participation in the VM-TODSS retirement scheme include bus drivers, conductors, taxi operators, public transport owner-operators and ‘loaders’. Participants can contribute up to 20 per cent of their annual salary, payable at least once per year.
Upon the age of retirement, or the point at which the contributor suffers permanent disability, were that to happen, VM Pensions will pay out a monthly sum for the purchase of food items and general expenses.
“We have a lot of young people entering the sector now who will benefit from this initiative, among other things that the VM Group will offer to the sector,” Newman said.
Once in the database, VM Pensions will look to bundle life insurance products, savings and investment products across the VM Group to the self-employed and contract workers. British Caribbean Insurance Company, BCIC, an affiliated company of the VM Group, will serve as the official insurer for TODSS.
“There are special offerings for these operators across the group, including discounted services at VM Money Transfer and attractive savings option with the Victoria Mutual Building Society, once they sign up for the pension plan,” Rose said.
Teams from VM Pensions and TODSS will begin a sensitisation campaign around the pension scheme in St Catherine starting next week, before moving into other parishes.
“We want to debunk the myths about pension. People oftentimes mistake pension schemes for insurance contracts, and they think that if they stop paying, they will lose their money,” Rose said.