By Zuko Komisa
Retirement funds are attempting to connect former members and beneficiaries with billions in unclaimed retirement fund payouts, thus retirement fund actuaries are advising South Africans to make themselves traceable.
Retirement accounts at the end of last year had unclaimed benefits worth R47.3 billion, according to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).
Kaya Biz with Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to Jeanine Astrup – Consulting actuary and member of the Retirement Matters Committee Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA)
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION HERE:
According to Moonstone Attorneys, sometimes individuals simply walk away from their benefits when they leave their jobs because they are unaware that they are a part of the pension or provident fund of their employer.
They offered the following tips on how to verify that a tracing agent is legitimate:
- The tracing agent will know something about you. If you receive a text message saying that you have unclaimed benefits owing but the SMS does not include your name, it is likely to be a scam.
- If you receive a phone call from someone, ask for a number that you can call them back on. All legitimate callers will have no problem providing you with a contact number for a return call.
- Ask the tracing agent what company they are doing the tracing for and what the company may have been called before. If you did not work for that company, then you would not have a benefit due.
- Ask the tracing agent for a letter from the company for which they are tracing.
- Do an internet search to check that the tracing agent is a legitimate company. Make sure that, if you receive an email, the email address includes the tracing agent’s name. Call the retirement fund and ask whether they are doing a tracing exercise. The contact details for every fund’s principal officer are available on the FSCA’s website. Go to fsca.co.za > Regulated entities > List of regulated entities and persons > Retirement funds
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