Abstract
South Africa is facing a retirement planning crisis. One way to address this crisis is to equip tertiary students, before they graduate, with the necessary knowledge they need to prepare adequately for retirement. This study was conducted to determine whether South African tertiary institutions currently form part of the solution by equipping young professionals with retirement planning knowledge. The study also investigates young professionals’ retirement planning knowledge, attitude, and behaviour, in order to inform a tertiary retirement planning educational programme. A non-probabilistic, convenience sampling, quantitative survey research methodology was used to collect the data needed to conduct this study. It was found that South African tertiary institutions did not educate young professionals about retirement planning. It was also found that young professionals’ assertions that they view retirement planning as a priority are not substantiated with actionable behaviour since the majority are not contributing adequately. Tertiary students near graduation must be taught: a) how compound interest growth affects retirement funds, b) how to estimate the capital they need for retirement, c) how to read and analyse a typical remuneration document to determine the status of their employer-sponsored retirement fund, and d) what preservation funds are and how to use them. Key words: Retirement planning, tertiary institutions, tertiary retirement planning educational programme