Retirement funds will face expanded annual and quarterly reporting, while boards remain responsible for setting ESG mandates and overseeing how asset managers implement them.
The regulator is looking to international models as it seeks a more consistent way to assess member outcomes, costs, and investment performance.
Initial cost comparisons can obscure how fees linked to assets, salaries, or membership grow over time, potentially producing sharply different outcomes.
The Pension Funds Adjudicator plans to use its powers more assertively against employers, funds, and responsible persons who ignore complaints or fail to co-operate.
Discovery’s research points to a complex relationship between mental well-being, financial behaviour, and retirement savings withdrawals.
New IRFA chairperson Nancy Andrews says the industry must look beyond immediate developments and focus on responsible stewardship, sound governance, and long-term outcomes for members.
IRFA will focus on governance, member education, and constructive policy engagement as the retirement-fund sector navigates continuing regulatory change.
Many members value retirement guidance, but research suggests it often comes after key savings, preservation, and income decisions have already been made.
Absa is taking over custody of the GEPF’s R3.5 trillion portfolio – but what does a master custodian actually do, and what does the change mean for the Fund’s 1.7 million-plus members and beneficiaries?
Most asset owners say they are responsible investors, but 43% have no independent way to assess whether their managers are delivering on their ESG commitments.
With household debt absorbing income and retirement outcomes remaining poor, Discovery has introduced a benefit aimed at addressing both pressures.
The proposal puts SARS’s existing cumulative approach into the Income Tax Act, ending uncertainty over whether the R150 000 limit applies per policy.
The Adjudicator orders a fresh investigation after finding that the fund had not adequately verified an alleged cohabiting partner’s claim.
Retirement funds back efforts to make unclaimed benefits easier to find but say transferring billions in retirement assets into a central fund goes too far.
Exercising regularly is only the starting point for Discovery’s argument that everyday behaviours can have a lasting effect on earnings, debt, and retirement security.
Retirement funds are expected to submit fuller, better-documented complaints when pursuing employers over unpaid contributions and missing contribution schedules.
Better member data, stronger engagement, and AI-assisted tracing may improve future outcomes, but billions of rands in legacy retirement savings are likely to remain unclaimed.
