Retirement fund trustees are facing an increasingly complex array of
legislation, Rod Stevenson of Old Mutual Actuaries and Consultants told the
Institute of Retirement Funds conference.
Legislation and projects in the pipeline which trustees should know about
included:
- The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act,
which enforced the equality provisions of the Constitution and prevented
unfair exclusions or discrimination by retirement funds. Stevenson
described this as ``a wake-up call`` for the industry;
- The Promotion of Access to Information Act;
- The Administrative Justice Act;
- The Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Bill, which in its
present draft form would force the approximately 60 000 pension fund
trustees in the country to be licensed;
- The S A Law Commission`s project on the law of insolvency and retirement
provision, which would cap the exclusion of pension benefits from an
insolvent estate at R200 000 - a provision, said Stevenson, which would
penalise not only the fraudulent member of a pension fund but other
insolvent people as well;
- Regulations under the Pension Funds Amendment Act on contribution
payments and on a simplified liquidation process;
- Financial Services Board (FSB) proposals to exempt small retirement funds
from audit requirements;
- FSB proposals relating to transfers from one fund to another; and
- FSB proposals to replace prescribed investment limits for retirement
funds with a new process setting up a specific investment strategy for each
fund.