Can a person have more than two retirement annuities?

Question:

I'm curious can I person have more than two retirement annuities at a go..

Answer:

Investors can take out as many RAs as they choose, with the same or different providers. They can all be accessed at different times. However, the rules relating to the minimum amount requiring annuitisation (R247,500) are applied per fund, and not per ‘policy’. This is in terms of the definition of an RA in the Income Tax Act. So if the investor holds two separate RA accounts with 10X, they would be in the same RA fund, which means they would have to be aggregated for the purpose of determining whether annuitisation is required. If the RAs are invested in two seperate funds (ie with different providers), then the de minimus rule would be applied individually to each RA.