Is it permissible to sell retirement plan? i.e. working in a call center to sell these plans over phone.
Bismillahi Ta’ala
Walaikum Assalam Warahmatullah
Retirement plans are essentially an investment product with a deferred return upon retirement. The plan are nothing different to investment in any mutual fund with certain additional conditions on payout.
The same rules which apply to RRSP or other such investment schemes will also apply to the retirement plans you will be selling. You may read further about the RRSP at https://fatwa.ca/rrsp-investment-and-pension-plan-payouts/
From the above answer you will understand that the investment in the plan maybe of shar’an acceptable nature (especially when it is utilized through self-directed investment avenues), or they could have non Shari’ah compliant avenues such as bonds, t-bills or unacceptable companies for investments.
As per my understanding your job would be salary + commission based wherein you get paid hourly and a percentage from the sales you have made. But for shar’i stance of this job, regardless whether you get commission or only hourly wage:
a. If the plans that you sell are of the shar’an acceptable nature, then your job of selling these would in itself be permissible, as long as majority of the income of the company your work for is also free from haram avenues. ( You may read through our standard answer about two main criteria when assessing the permissibility of a job at https://fatwa.ca/job-in-a-software-company-whose-main-clients-are-banks/ )
b. However, if the retirement plans which you sell contain haram or non-shariah compliant investments in them, then you being a broker to sell those plans is an assistance in sin, and your income from such job will not be halal.
Wallahu A’lam
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi