Fin24 reports that thousands of retirement fund members, former members and pensioners stand to benefit from millions of rands held in surplus unclaimed benefits of retirement funds following three judgements of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).  

The decision could help employers, members, former members and pensioners who suffered financial hardship due to the Covid-19 lockdown.  There is, however, one snag – a way must be created for the unclaimed benefits to be transferred from the contingency surplus unclaimed benefit funds back to the main retirement funds allowing for distribution, says pension funds lawyer Jonathan Mort.  The SCA has reversed a decision of the Gauteng High Court, which had ruled in favour of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the Chief Master of the High Court and the Minister of Finance.  This allows millions of rands in unclaimed surplus benefits to be distributed again as a surplus.  The exact amount is not known.  But this is only one of the many unclaimed benefits held by retirement funds that are due to untraceable members.  There is a further estimated R40 billion in unclaimed benefits – much of which may never be claimed – that comes from people who have never claimed their retirement benefits despite extensive tracing.  Most of these tend to be in blue-collar worker funds.  If the road is opened to all unclaimed benefits, not just to the unclaimed benefits from the distribution of surpluses, there could also be enormous benefits for existing members, former members and pensioners.

• Read the full original of the informative report in the above regard by Bruce Cameron at Fin24

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