Former EPF CEO Tunku Alizakri: Facing Up To An Uncertain Retirement and Financial Future

Tunku Alizakri Raja Muhammad Alias is a highly experienced and respected corporate figure and a former CEO of Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund, among the world’s oldest provident funds and the 7th-largest in the world, with over a trillion Ringgit in assets under management. 

In today’s chat, we focus on one of Malaysia’s most pressing concerns: the lack of sufficient savings for many Malaysians, and the uncertain futures we all face, as we stay older for longer and the rising cost of housing, food and other basic necessities. 

(Many thanks to the Asia School of Business for their collaboration with The Do More Podcast, in whose studio this conversation was recorded. The Asia School of Business is a partnership between MIT's Sloan School of Management and Bank Negara Malaysia).

CONTENTS 

00:01:31 - Introduction 

00:07:00 - Zakri’s Forced Retirement, Savings Sufficiency 

00:12:30 - Retirement and Pensions are Human Constructs 

00:16:37 - How Much is ‘Enough Savings’? 

00:20:20 - The Trouble with Financial Planners and Outsourcing Other Important Life Areas 

00:23:27 - Can the EPF be Trusted? And the Problem with Windfall Gains 

00:27:11 - How Zakri Thinks About His Own Retirement 

00:30:10 - Should People Even Buy Their Own Property?  

00:35:00 - Buying Life’s Little Luxuries .. Yea or Nay? 

00:37:05 - Different Races, Different Spending Patterns 

00:44:40 - Wealth and Sufficiency are Mindset Patterns 

00:47:14 - How Malaysia and China Differ, Policy-Wise 

00:49:00 - Rotten Heads and the Need for a New Model 

00:55:42 - How Malaysia Can be the Centre of the Impact Investing World 

01:00:25 - The Need to Redefine ‘Retirement’ Must Also be Discussed 

01:06:00 - How to Engage Property Developers to Help Nation-Build 

01:10:03 - Could the Private Sector Take the Lead? 

01:12:00 - What Role Can the Monarchs Play? 

01:15:01 - Who Manages the Monarchs? 

01:24:30 - The Role of Creativity 

01:31:30 - Where Does the EPF Go From Here? 

01:39:00 - Alizakri’s Three Thoughts for the Future 

ABOUT TUNKU ALIZAKRI 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alizakri-alias/

At Endeavor Malaysia: https://www.endeavormalaysia.org/people/tunku-alizakri-bin-raja-muhammad-alias

PAN Productions: https://www.facebook.com/PanProductions/