Why South African families should not assume their pension fund will pay out
In more than three decades of consulting to retirement funds, I have sat across the table from more grieving families than I can count, and heard some version of the same sentence more times than I care to remember: “We assumed the fund would just pay out”.
South African families should not assume their pension fund will pay out smoothly, as the Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator (OPFA) has repeatedly shown, with many cases where the fund either underpays or misallocates benefits. Members often fall into the trap of believing the system will work without question - but that assumption is increasingly problematic.
The OPFA's role is crucial for protecting families who find themselves on the wrong end of an unfair decision, providing a free avenue to challenge the fund when things go wrong.
Written by urgent.news from IOL's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
