What is  PERA Law?

Short for Personal Equity and Retirement Account, the PERA Act of 2008 via RA 9505 is a law that establishes provident “personal savings plan” to support savings mobilization and capital market plans.

• This is prepared through an established regulatory and legal framework regarding people’s retirement plans as well as other investments and voluntary personal savings.
• Hence, it is recognized by the State that the PERA law can potentially contribute to the long term fiscal sustainability by reducing social pension benefits and stipulation of long term financing.

Why Apply for PERA

In the Philippines, it’s a personal and voluntary account that is established by an individual who has the capability to contract while possessing a TIN (Tax Identification Number) to purposely invest in any PERA investment product.

• Under this act, you can open up to 5 PERA through a Contributor anytime you want under the guidance of a PERA Administrator.
• You can use your PERA to gradually build your funds up and have something to spend during your retirement years.
• This is applicable even if you’re employed right now and with retirement benefits to receive when the time comes.

• The funds in your PERA are set to automatically pay out your beneficiaries without any taxes in case of death.

Therefore, this is a highly beneficial plan for any qualified individual while serving as a reliable estate tool.

Tax Incentives

• In addition, under this law, you can take advantage of tax credit, tax-exempt investment income, and other tax incentives.

The tax credit is the contributions made in a year.

Tax-exempt investment income refers to the investment income earned from investments of PERA benefits or assets.

And the tax incentives include the qualified distributions which were made at the age 55 along with a completion of 5-year contributions.

BDO is now an accredited administrator of PERA in the Philippines

Being the first financial institution in the Philippines to receive accreditation to direct collective savings tools under Personal Equity and Retirement Account, the BDO Unibank is now authorize to assist individuals in creating their PERA account.

After completing rigorous qualification requirements set by BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) and BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), you can now use BDO to start your first ever PERA investment.

Why You Should Save Up for your Retirement…

PERA Law is actually a Filipino version of laws alike that cover retirement savings medium.

Hence, Executive Vice President and Trust Officer Ador Abrogena of BDO Trust said that the accreditation will allow them to further encourage people to benefit from this advocacy aimed to facilitate financial inclusion.

By providing the Filipino people with a reliable medium of supplementing their pension benefits in the future, they can now properly manage their funds with GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) and SSS (Social Security System).

Officially signed on the 22^nd of August, 2008, the PERA Law has been effectively established under the Republic Act No 9505.

And just last 22^nd of September this year, BDO shares already hit a significant percentage of 0.09 (P110.60).