Make sure your retirement fund gives you all the information you need to make the right decisions - your financial future is at stake.
Many people do not know as much as they should about the benefits they will receive from their retirement fund, or about how the fund is managed.
Retirement funds are obliged by the Pensions Funds Act to give members a minimum of information and the Pension Funds Adjudicator, Professor John Murphy, has shown that he will not tolerate funds that do not give you the information you require.
He says your fund is legally obliged to to keep you informed and to assist you in your queries.
In a recent case, Murphy rapped Southern's Life's pension fund, the Southern Staff Pension Fund, over the knuckles for failing to inform staffer Jeffrey Letlonkane adequately about his options.
Letlonkane resigned from Southern Life and was given two choices: he could take his retirement money in cash or he could transfer a much bigger amount to a preservation fund.
He first chose the latter but then changed his mind and decided to take the cash.
When he was paid out, he was shocked to discover that instead of receiving the roughly R75 000 that was due to him if he transferred to a preservation fund, he only received about R16 000 in cash.
Murphy says Letlonkane did not know how a preservation fund works. He could have taken the bigger benefit of R75 000 by transferring it to a preservation fund while still getting the cash he wanted now, because tax laws allow one cash withdrawal from a preservation fund before retirement.
The fact that he was paid out in cash on his instruction, does not relieve the fund of its obligation of ensuring that Letlonkane's interests were protected, Murphy says.
"The fund should have played a more active role in (Letlonkane's) decision-making process to ensure that his best interests were advanced and that he was aware of the advantages and disadvantages attached to each option."
The retirement fund short-changed Letlonkane by not putting him fully in the picture, Murphy adds.
The Adjudicator ordered the fund to pay Letlonkane almost R54 000 - putting him in the same position as if he had chosen the better option.
Financial Services Board (FSB) directives oblige your fund to provide you with basic information.
Within three months of joining the fund, you must receive a pamphlet giving you this information and stating where you can inspect the rules, the financial returns and the most recent actuarial valuation report of your fund.
Your fund must also give you information when specific events take place such as when the fund restructures.
You must sent a brief trustees' report each year with a simple explanation of the financial results of the fund.
And you must be told what your options are should you withdraw from the fund and what happens when you retire or die.
The FSB says though the Pension Funds Act does not require your fund to give you information on benefits such as permanent disability benefits or some forms of group life insurance, it would be good practice for the fund to do so.
Peter Strasheim, a pension lawyer, believes funds should go even further.
Because of the complexity of retirement funding, he says, you should be entitled to more than just information: you should be getting financial advice and your employer should foot the bill.
There is no point in being given a benefit statement from your fund if you don't understand it, he says.
Financial advice is particularly important when you are retrenched, or if you take voluntary retirement.
"Many employers offer staff more information and advice about fringe benefits like subsidised cars or homes than about their retirement," Strasheim says.