South Africa's pension fund regulatory landscape has undergone significant transformation over the past two years. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has tightened governance requirements, mandated enhanced fee transparency, implemented new beneficiary...
For sophisticated investors seeking exposure to South Africa's retirement fund ecosystem, understanding the landscape of pension fund structures, fund types, and investment requirements is essential. The South African pension fund market represents one of the...
For many working South Africans, the magic lump sum you need at retirement is R10 Million excluding the value of your home/cars and other assets, R10 Million in cash to Live a happy financially secure retirement. You don’t need to be rich, lucky or a financial genius...
Why patience is one of the most powerful investing tools you have We all set financial goals. We plan for the future, work hard, and try to make smart choices. But sometimes, when it comes to investing, the smartest choice is to do absolutely nothing. Yes, nothing....
Let’s face it, retirement planning isn’t always the most thrilling topic. But if you knew there was a simple way to pay less tax, protect your capital, and give your future self a serious financial boost, would you do it? Well, there is and it’s called making...
The value of unclaimed benefits of around R88 Billion is owing to beneficiaries of various policy/investment types and a concerted effort is being made to distribute this money to the rightful beneficiaries. An injection into the economy of this money will do wonders...
What You Will Learn From This Article The one legal restriction that applies to every pension fund loan in South Africa, regardless of what your fund's own rules say The two real ways to borrow against your retirement savings, and why one of them has become far less...
In South Africa, the payment of retirement fund proceeds on premature death is governed by the Pension Funds Act of 1956. When a member of a retirement fund dies before reaching retirement age, the benefits are not automatically paid out according to the member's...
You will have heard how powerful compound interest is at building wealth but how do you calculate the future value of a savings account of, for example R10 000/year over 40 years if you reinvest the interest every month? Compound interest is an incredibly powerful...
Have you ever thought that it would be nice to go and spend some time in Europe to enjoy your hard earned cash, experience other countries and cultures and generally do a whole lot of travelling without having to come back to South Africa every 3 to 6 months, but to...
It appears that the deal where Sanlam Life acquires ABSA Consultants and Actuaries (ACA Employee benefits) has finally gone through all of the regulatory approvals necessary to be concluded. The deal was first announced in October 2017 and was expected to be consluded...
Updated November 2020 Link to FAIS database has been updated. Many of South Africa's pension fund Administrators hold large sums of money (In excess of R20 Billion) in preservation funds from members who have not claimed their benefits and according to the act these...
We hear from the State that they are going to be spending huge amounts of money bailing out State owned enterprises, are going to spend on roads, housing and social upliftment programs. We hear demands from unions on unsustainable wage increases and threats to shut...
Updated: 26/10/2020 As a follow up to the article that indicates the increased level of complaints against pension fund administrators and the current pension fund adjudicators record of dealing with these cases, we thought you would like to know a little about the...
There are many large Pension funds that see it is a responsibility to use the funds saved by their members to help grow the economy. These are the sentiments of Sanlams Elias Masilela, Chair of Sanlams board. He was quick to add, that these investments should not be...
Many people have really struggled to gain access to unclaimed benefits due in part to the many fund administrators administrating their own unclaimed benefits. Each fund administrator in terms of current law, is required to seek out the beneficiaries of any unclaimed...
This is a very important question right now which anyone, who has any money to invest is asking. As a South African, we are taking body blows from all sides. Unemployment at over 40% An economy that has been floundering for years State capture which saw Billions of...
We all find ourselves in uncertain places during our lives or become overwhelmed by negative sentiment during times of financial market instability. In South Africa it is particularly easy to get caught up in negative sentiment with our failing State owned Enterprises...
The Tax Free Savings and Investment allowance has been available since 2015 and many South Africans have taken up the opportunity to get tax free returns. What exactly does Tax free mean? Start saving for your retirement the right way. Tax Free means just that. Any...
There are some big hitters backing Facebooks Libra coin, including Naspers, Paypal, VISA and Mastercard. This is an amazing coup for Facebook, with 30 big names backing the crypto currency so far. There are hopes that 100 of the Worlds biggest Internet Giants will...
The Government employees pension fund (GEPF) is the largest pension fund by investment value that invests the retirement savings of all South African Government employees. The GEPF is currently seeking to increase it's exposure to foreign markets and currencies as...
In the recent pension fund adjudicators annual report there is an alarmingly high incidence of companies deducting money from employees salaries for investment into pension funds or other retirement products and the money being deducted, not being paid over to the...
In recent years, Expat South Africans living in the UK, USA or Australia in particular, have seen their retirement/pension payouts reduced by enormous amounts once transferred to the country they now live in due solely to the currency fluctuations. If this is your...
The pension fund adjudicator has seen an increase of more than 10 000 cases year on year or a massive 38%. The great news for those of you who are skeptical about how your complaint will be handled will be extremely happy to note that 83% of the complaints were ruled...