umbrella funds Archives

01 Nov 2023

How to choose the right default option for a retirement fund

By Staff Writer

By: Shaheed Mohamed, Head of Group Savings and Investments at Allan Gray The shift from standalone retirement funds to umbrella funds continues to gain momentum. While there are many factors that need to be considered when selecting an umbrella fund, such as the provider’s administrative capabilities, fees, service and transparency, among others, choosing the most appropriate investment...

23 May 2023

Dispelling umbrella fund fears for employers

By Staff Writer

Allan Gray's Mica Townsend dispels fears around moving from single employer funds to multi-employer umbrella funds.

27 Sep 2021

'Artificial resignations' are not legal

By Staff Writer

Momentum Corporate’s multi-employer umbrella fund, FundsAtWork, is receiving requests from participating employers to allow members to resign “artificially” to get access to their retirement savings. Employers then reinstate the employee once they’ve obtained access to their savings.

08 Jul 2021

Evaluating umbrella funds

By Staff Writer

At the recent inaugural Allan Gray Retirement Benefits Conference, Andile Khumalo, founder of KhumaloCo, hosted a panel discussion via Zoom webinar to explore the elements that consultants, advisers and employers should consider when looking to join an umbrella fund. Hazel Hopkins, senior partner at Axiomatic Consultants, Vusi Maswili, director at ASI Financial Services, and Adv. Christi Franken, business development executive at Efficient Benefit Consulting, shared the factors they think are most important when evaluating umbrella funds.

22 Jun 2021

Sanlam Benchmark Survey shows impact of COVID-19 on retirement

By Staff Writer

Sanlam today released the results of its 40th Benchmark Survey. The research showed the deep impact that COVID-19 had on the retirement industry, with 27% of stand-alone retirement funds and 41% of umbrella funds’ employers having suspended retirement fund contributions last year. This resulted in an average suspension across all fund types of 4.5 months.

05 Jun 2019

Umbrella funds to disclose costs at individual member level from next year

By Janice Roberts

Members of umbrella retirement fund solutions will be able to assess the total impact of charges on their individual retirement benefits from next year October, when members of the Association for Savings and Investments South Africa (ASISA) implement the new Retirement Fund Standard: Effective Annual Cost (EAC) for Individual Fund Members.

10 Sep 2018

New research highlights how distracted employees damage company productivity

By Janice Roberts

South African businesses are losing up to a staggering R89 billion per year due to unproductive employees. This is according to new research by Momentum Corporate, which reveals that presenteeism – the phenomenon when employees are at work but not productive due to distractions – is costing these businesses 5% of Gross Operating Profits (GOP)1.

30 Aug 2018

Rainy day expenses a major distractor for women in the workplace

By Janice Roberts

Women are more worried about not having enough money when emergencies hit compared to their male counterparts – and this has a major impact on their productivity at work. “From our research, women are also more willing to save for emergencies than men” says Rigitte van Zyl, Head of Client Value Propositions at Momentum Corporate.

26 Jul 2018

Knee-jerk decisions undermine employees’ retirement outcomes

By Janice Roberts

Retirement fund members invested in more aggressive portfolios delivering poor returns during certain market cycles may be tempted to make emotional, short-term decisions. Katherine Barker, Head of Momentum FundsAtWork, says financial advisers play a key role in helping members to avoid hasty portfolio changes that reduce the probability of reaching their long-term retirement goals.

12 Jul 2018

The right umbrella fund helps employees to make smart decisions

By Janice Roberts

Saving through their employer’s retirement fund is often the only form of savings many South Africans have. With July marking National Savings Month, Katherine Barker, Head of Momentum FundsAtWork, says it’s the perfect time for employers and their financial advisers to ask some hard questions about how their retirement fund can help employees make smart...

20 Jun 2018

Does your retirement fund work for millennials?

By Janice Roberts

Millennials, an increasing portion of today’s workforce, are set to shape the world of work for many years to come. Katherine Barker, Head of the Momentum FundsAtWork Umbrella Funds, says that retirement fund solutions need to be flexible enough to address the specific needs of this rapidly-evolving workplace demographic.

17 May 2018

ASISA finalises standardised cost disclosure for umbrella funds

By Janice Roberts

Employers will find it much easier to select the most cost effective umbrella retirement fund solutions for their employees from March next year when the new ASISA Retirement Savings Cost (RSC) Disclosure Standard comes into effect. The new RSC Disclosure Standard commits members of the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) to present...