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BL Premium reports that the Joint Municipal Pension Fund (JMPF), a defined benefit pension fund for municipal workers of the old Transvaal province, is to pay its remaining pensioners a once-off bumper increase two decades after it almost collapsed.
The fund that is almost 100 years old approved a 7.5% increase for its remaining 1,100 pensioners at its AGM at the end of March. That inflationary increase means the fund will effectively pay pensioners a once-off special increase of 22.3%, which includes a 7.5% inflation adjustment as compensation for the lack of increases during the fund's prior troubled years. The 22.3% increase will be made at the end of April 2023. “This is quite a strong example of how focused attention in the retirement fund space can ensure that you have a solidly constructed investment plan that pays off over time,” commented Monika Kraushaar, the fund’s investment consultant from RisCura Solutions. She went on to say: “A very strong collaboration between the fund’s trustees and their appointed service providers has ensured that a bespoke solution could be created for the fund, which has supported the significant turnaround in the funding level as well as consistently strong investment growth over time.” The JMPF lost 44% of its capital in late 2002 after brokerage WJ Morgan & Associates made a series of disastrous investments in maize futures on behalf of the fund. The JMPF reportedly lost almost R2bn, resulting in it having to reduce benefits of its pensioners and members.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Garth Theunissen at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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