As South Africa continues to grapple with economic inequality, infrastructure backlogs, and retirement insecurity, the employee benefits industry stands at a pivotal crossroads. Pension funds - custodians of long term retirement savings - have a unique...
The two-pot retirement system represents one of the biggest evolutions in the South African retirement industry landscape to date and aims to address two major challenges in retirement planning: leakage and access to emergency savings. Two seemingly...
Retirement funds provide financial security after the working years. If a retirement fund member dies, and a lump sum death benefit becomes payable, the trustees of the fund are responsible for distributing the death benefit fairly, in accordance with...
The retirement industry has been marked by innovation since its inception. But no change happens faster than the AI revolution. This transformation will lead to better member outcomes, more knowledgeable members, more knowledgeable trustees, and eventually a...
In the world of institutional investing, few topics have stirred as much curiosity and controversy as crypto assets. Once considered a niche interest, digital assets such as bitcoin and ethereum have evolved into a significant topic of discussion among...
Cybersecurity has become a critical concern for financial institutions, particularly pension funds, which manage vast amounts of sensitive personal and financial data. Recognising the growing risks, South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA)...
In the first part of this article around annuitisation (“Let's talk about annuitisation – Part I” featured in Pensions World Q4 2024), we discussed the need for trustees to review the annuity strategies and products available to members in light of the...
Umbrella trusts and beneficiary funds house the assets left to minor dependents; the source of the assets can be retirement fund death benefits in the case of beneficiary funds or testamentary and other non-retirement fund payouts in the case of trusts....
In South Africa, employers are currently not legally required to offer employee benefits. However, this is set to change as the government moves closer to implementing social security reforms such as Universal Coverage through auto-enrolment. While this...
It actually is complicated One of the unintended consequences of all the new two-pot legislative rules is that members' options when they withdraw from a pension or provident fund following their exit from employment have become fairly complicated. The...
