Getting divorced and want a share of your ex-spouse’s retirement savings? Then be sure you use a lawyer who understands the Pension Funds Act.
If you do not get your divorce settlement properly framed and endorsed, you may find that you will not receive the payment you believe is your due.
Deputy Pension Funds Adjudicator Muvhango Lukhaimane has again determined that she can do nothing to assist a non-member former spouse if the divorce settlement does not properly provide for the payment of a share of the fund member’s retirement savings.
It is not necessarily that you will receive no money – but you will not receive it from the retirement fund. You will have to sue your ex-spouse, which will cost money, and your former spouse will have to find the money elsewhere.
In a recent determination, Lukhaimane rejected, for numerous reasons, a complaint about the non-payment of a non-member former spouse’s pension interest.
The complaint was made by Ms N, who was aggrieved that her claim for a pension interest had been rejected by Metropolitan Retirement Administrators, the administrators of the Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers’ Union National Provident Fund.
Lukhaimane found that:
* The divorce settlement did not provide for the payment of Mr N’s pension interest to Ms N.
* The divorce order was not endorsed by the fund in favour of Ms N.
* The divorce order was vague and incapable of enforcement against the fund.
* The divorce settlement agreement provided the name of an incorrect fund, and the correct fund was not identifiable from the order. Lukhaimane says in terms of the Pension Funds Act, the portion of the pension interest payable to the non-member spouse must be deducted by the pension fund named in or identifiable from the decree of divorce.
* The divorce settlement agreement did not, as required by the Divorce Act, order the fund to endorse its records and pay the portion of the pension interest to the complainant.
Lukhaimane determined that the divorce order was not binding on the fund. However, the divorce settlement agreement remains binding between the parties, namely, the complainant and her former husband.