As retirement funds prepare for the Two-Pot system on 1 September 2024, a major concern is the expected influx of inquiries from members wanting to withdraw from their savings pot. Providing efficient and compassionate support to members becomes paramount....
Almost a quarter of South African households say their access to food is insufficient, according to new statistics released in late May 2024. Statistics SA's General Household Survey found that 23.1% of households considered their access to food inadequate or...
The Need for Tracing Unclaimed benefits present a significant financial concern both for individuals and institutions. For individuals, unclaimed benefits could be life changing amounts of money that lie dormant due to lack of claim. For institutions,...
The pillars of retirement savings reform that Rob Rusconi tabled for discussion at the ANC's Polokwane conference in 2007 included the following key elements: Preservation of savings, portability of benefits, universal coverage, adequate benefits,...
Disclaimer. Please note that this article uses very broad generalisation of a painted scenario for the purpose of dramatic effect. Individuals are all different and different circumstances will be relevant to every individual fund, member or service provider....
In previous articles, we explored strategies to safeguard retirement funds against failure, drawing insights from corporate failures and independent non-executive (NED) remuneration practices to identify transferrable learnings for retirement funds. In this...
Many retirement funds, including commercial umbrella funds, maintain a life-cycle investment strategy. Trustees carefully consider the investment strategy, with input from experts in the field. These experts design sophisticated investment strategies, often...
The world of retirement fund servicing is undergoing a significant transformation, thanks to the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants. Fund secretaries and employee benefits consultants to retirement funds can now leverage AI to streamline...
A recent and interesting industry trend is that of death benefits being placed into beneficiary funds for elderly parents of deceased retirement fund members. This is notable because beneficiary funds have since their inception been primarily seen as a...
I write this article in January 2024, the new year has arrived and we look forward to a year filled with major events, both in South Africa and abroad. National elections are scheduled to be held this year, which will inevitably have an impact on pensions and...
