Help me help my parents! (#211‪)‬ The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap

The financial services industry has done nobody any favours. Not only were many of our parents sold retirement products with exorbitant fees, they are also offered the same awful choices now they’ve reached retirement age. They have learned the hard way you can spend your life doing everything right and still lose because of bad products with high fees.
This week we received five different questions from listeners who are trying to help their parents navigate the terrifying world of retirement money. For many of us, this is the biggest financial decision we would ever have to make. If you’ve been told you aren’t qualified or equipped to make these decisions your whole life, odds are you’re not going to start trying at 65. 
Our parents need our help navigating this terrain. Hopefully this episode also helps us help each other.
Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Win of the week: Emma
I am a proudly SA opera singer with a penchant to be a financially stable artist. I started my finance journey properly from last year, and was educated about Just One Lap by my mother, who was your winner of the week a while back.
I wrote a blog post this month, hoping to encourage a culture of saving and financial savviness amongst my followers, and thought perhaps you might want to feature it in your podcast.
Kenya
My mom has recently left her job to take a few months off. Her pension fund (currently held with Old Mutual) needs to be transferred to a preservation fund until she retires in two years. A financial advisor offered her a once-off fee of 1.7% to give advice on which preservation fund to choose (and to help her complete the forms- which according to her are actually very simple). Initially it didn't sound like much, but I was shocked when I calculated the rand value of this fee. The fund he’s recommending still falls within the Old Mutual stable and has these costs:  
Total investment charge: 0.63% p.a 
Fund access: 0.18% p.a 
Admin fee: 0.31% p.a 
Totalling: 1.12% p.a 
Alternatively, he has suggested a fund with Coronation with fees not dissimilar to the above. 
Is this a fair offer? Are either of you aware of a better lower- cost preservation fund that she can choose? Bearing in mind she has two years before she will be required to access it and it is required to go to a preservation fund. 
Jenna
I started listening to your show this year and have become completely addicted. I went back to your old podcasts and have listened to about 50 hours already.
My mother has never been great with money. However, she has somehow managed to pull through.
She will run out of money soon and may need to go into debt. I'd like to help in any way I can, so I've helped her reduce her costs and get a better overview of her finances.
She is 63 years old. She has no retirement fund or any savings aside from R100k in cash in a money market account. She has a brand new car, so her expenses shouldn't be too high for a few years. 
She has a home loan that she can access at any time.
She has a house valued at about R2.5 - R3m, paid off. 
The house has a back section that, if she renovated it, she could possibly rent out, however this would be expensive. 
Asset-wise she seems to be in a ok position, but her expenses are more than her income and she'd like to retire soon. I don't think that she would be able to manage a large amount of money (if she were to sell her house.) 
How can she continue generating income for the rest of her life while losing money each month? What's the best strategy for this situation?
Brendt
I recently had a look at my parents' financial situation. They already have a RA that has been converted to a living annuity. 
When I inquired as to the fees that are charged on the living annuity, I almost fell off my chair.
This got me thinking: we are so focussed on getting a low fee RA going that we totally forget that the RA forces you into a living a