
Alexforbes’ pivot to independent advisers starts paying off
Strong retail flows, rising adviser numbers, and expanding support capabilities suggest the group’s push to win over IFAs is beginning to deliver measurable results.

Strong retail flows, rising adviser numbers, and expanding support capabilities suggest the group’s push to win over IFAs is beginning to deliver measurable results.

While billions have been withdrawn through the two-pot system, Alexforbes says more members are remaining connected to retirement funds long after leaving their employers.

Despite a decline in headline earnings, Alexforbes delivered strong underlying growth, with record assets, rising retail inflows, and expanding umbrella fund assets.

Data from Alexforbes and Sanlam suggests more members are preserving retirement savings, though it is too soon to know whether the shift will last.

Old Mutual Corporate says the real COFI test is cultural: funds must start with the member outcome and build governance around it.

The retirement fund was not entitled to pay the benefit into the estate because it only learned of the member’s death more than a year later.

The Select Committee also raised concerns about PIC oversight, unlisted investments, and benefit administration.

The deputy adjudicator finds the ‘freeze’ clause the fund relied on is tied to its DB rules and can’t be used to block a DC member’s savings withdrawal.

The Adjudicator conflated jurisdiction with enforcement and overlooked the potential personal-liability provisions in the PFA.

The Tribunal says membership could end only in accordance with the fund’s rules, and WhatsApp exchanges did not amount to a valid withdrawal.

COFI’s outcomes-based framework may push governance responsibility beyond trustees and require umbrella funds to prove that members are better off.

The system appears to be changing member behaviour at exit from employment, even as most eligible members continue to make withdrawals.

IRFA also sets out how exit withdrawals now work when a member resigns and has already withdrawn from the savings component in the tax year.

Nearly nine years after the claim was lodged, the fund still could not confirm whether the benefit had been allocated or paid.

IRFA says the FSCA is engaging with the Department of Employment and Labour on the issue.

The FST rejects the member’s loss calculation based on assumed money market returns, affirming that the fund’s rules limit accrual to bank interest.

From disputed dependants to contested deaths, trustees are judged on how they investigate and explain their decisions.