For someone who regularly pleads for succinct plain language laws, the FSCA Communication of the draft exemption of retail funds from the requirements of section 14(1) of the Pension Funds Act needs to be highlighted as achieving this requirement.
The brief draft exemption and the communication that goes with it uses plain language and short sentences
In this judgment the applicant retired in 2020 and arranged for his pension fund to transfer his retirement benefit to the respondent insurer, after withdrawing the tax-free lump sum (one third of his pension benefits). The funds were invested in a number of life and annuity policies.
The applicant tried to cancel the policies a
A February 2025 high court judgment incorrectly found that a pension fund’s group insurance policy was not governed by s 37C of the Pension Funds Act (PFA).
The dispute arose following the death of a mine employee. The mine employees were members of the Pension Fund, which had arranged group life insurance cover for the employees
The Financial Services Tribunal has brought much-needed clarity to the position of statements made under section 112(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (CPA) and the implication under section 37D of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (PFA). On 23 October 2024, the FST in the case of Nyathi South Africa (Pty) Ltd v
The High Court in South African Retirement Annuity Fund v Pension Funds Adjudicator and Another clarified that the twelve-month period within which funds are to trace dependants commences to run from the date on which the fund is notified of the death of the member and not on the date of death of the member.
Since 2020, most retirement funds have been faced with a situation where participating employers have failed to comply with section 13A of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (PFA), by either underpaying employer or member contributions or not paying at all. The non-payment of contributions attracts late payment interest in terms of section 13(7) of
This blog was co-authored with Rory Scott, Candidate Attorney.
On 15 March 2023, the Financial Services Tribunal dismissed a reconsideration application, ruling that a fund cannot rely on a benefit being in the process of being automatically paid as a defence to a pension interest claim.
The non-member spouse filed a complaint on 12 May
The Pension Funds Act, 1956 (“PFA”) is the primary legislation regulating retirement funds. Section 30A of the PFA provides that any person who has a complaint as defined in section 1 “may lodge a written complaint with the retirement fund for consideration by the board, which must be properly considered and responded