{"id":1225,"date":"2017-03-28T12:46:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T10:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2025-07-18T09:39:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T07:39:15","slug":"are-your-retirement-savings-protected-by-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/are-your-retirement-savings-protected-by-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Your Retirement Savings Protected By Law?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ensure Your Retirement Contributions Are Paid into a Registered Fund<\/h3><\/span><\/div>
How to Ensure That the Fund to Which Your Retirement Contributions Are Paid is a Registered Entity<\/strong>

\n\nSaving for retirement is an important part of planning your finances in order to have the financial freedom to enjoy your later years, whether employed by someone else or self-employed.
\nMost individuals in today\u2019s working environment understand this, and it has become more important to save for retirement during your working years.

\n\nThe majority of employees who work for private companies are covered by defined contribution schemes<\/strong> (where the retirement benefit is based on their monthly contributions), while those who work for public companies are covered by defined benefit schemes<\/strong> (where the retirement benefit is based on their needs as determined by experts \u2014 it is a specified amount and not necessarily based on contributions).

\n\nContributing to a pension fund is the most preferred way of saving towards retirement, and most times, is compulsory for employees in company benefit packages.
\nThis manner of saving for retirement is said to be an easier way, over a longer period.

\n\nIt is also cheaper to save towards retirement by contributing to a pension fund because the cost of administration and investment fees are lower for each individual member when compared to the costs that need to be paid if a single individual were to make a private investment.

\n\nSaving through employer-related pensions also gives members access to different types of investments, which usually require high deposit amounts \u2014 something an individual contributing to a pension fund on their own may not afford.

\n\nOne would then expect that saving for retirement by having your employer make monthly deductions from your salary would almost guarantee a payout on retirement (assuming that good investment decisions have been made and all other market and regulatory factors remain unchanged).

\n\nHowever<\/strong>, some have had their hopes of financial stability during retirement dashed because the fund into which they had been depositing money \u2014 usually over many years \u2014 did not meet expectations or fulfill its promises.

\n\nIt is important that as an individual saving for retirement, you know the importance of ensuring that your deposits are protected by law under the Pension Funds Act<\/strong>.

\n\nThis article emphasises the importance of ensuring that individuals are aware of the clear purpose of their monthly savings, and that the fund to which these contributions are paid is registered and regulated<\/strong>.

\n\nThe Pension Funds Act, Act No. 24 of 1956<\/strong> (hereinafter referred to as the \u201cAct\u201d) is the law that regulates pension funds.
\nThis Act is overseen by the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA)<\/strong>.
\nOnly pension funds that are registered with the Authority are supervised under this Act.

\n\nThe Authority has in the past received a number of complaints regarding non-payment of retirement benefits<\/strong>.
\nIt came to the attention of the Registrar that some of the employees in question were making monthly contributions into a fund that is not a registered pension fund<\/strong>.
\nThese contributions were believed to be made to a pension fund (as defined in the Act), but in actual fact were not.

\n\nThis is a typical example where employees have no protection<\/strong> available to them under the Act, as NAMFISA does not supervise these entities.

\n\nWhat Do You Need to Know?<\/strong>

\n\nThe fund to which you are making monthly contributions for retirement must meet the definition of a \u201cpension fund organisation\u201d<\/strong> as written in the Act.
\nThis means that the purpose of the fund must be clearly defined to meet the legal definition.

\n\nOnce the definition is met, the fund must then be registered according to Section 4 of the Act<\/strong>, which outlines the requirements that must be met before registration can be granted.

\n\nA registered fund therefore has the following characteristics:

\n\n\u2022 An appointed principal officer<\/strong> who manages the affairs of the fund and is the first point of contact in the event that a member requires information.
\n\u2022 A license issued by NAMFISA<\/strong> as proof of registration \u2014 this certificate can be obtained from the principal officer.
\n\u2022 Endorsed rules of the fund<\/strong> (indicated by a NAMFISA stamp), which outline the rules governing the fund.

\n\nTherefore, if you are making monthly contributions to a fund that you believe is for retirement savings, and the fund is not registered with NAMFISA<\/strong>, then:

\n\nNAMFISA cannot protect you.<\/strong>

\n\nAny complaints reported to NAMFISA cannot be resolved under the Pension Funds Act.

\n\nYou may enquire through your employer or contact NAMFISA directly to confirm whether the fund is registered.

\n\nAccording to Section 4(1) of the Act<\/strong>:
\n\u201cEvery pension fund shall apply to the Registrar for registration under this Act.\u201d<\/em>

\n\nTherefore, any fund that claims to be a pension fund organisation must be registered under the Act.

\n\nMembers contributing to any unregistered fund are urged to report such entities to NAMFISA:

\n\nContact Information:<\/strong>
\nPhysical Address:<\/strong> 27 Fidel Castro Street, Alexander Forbes House, 6th Floor
\nTelephone:<\/strong> +264 61 290 5000

\n\nThe Registrar, under Section 32 of the Act<\/strong>, may require such unregistered funds to furnish information which the Registrar will use to conduct an investigation to determine whether or not the fund should be registered.

\n\nFinally, if you have the knowledge and expertise to manage your retirement savings outside of a registered pension fund or employee fund \u2014 for example, in a unit trust, retirement annuity policy with a long-term insurer, or other investment strategy \u2014 you are free to do so.

\n\nIt is not law<\/strong> that all retirement savings must be made through a pension fund.
\nHowever, it should be noted that employers are free to require compulsory membership to non-registered funds<\/strong> as a condition of employment.
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Ensure Your Retirement Contributions Are Paid into a Registered Fund How to Ensure That the Fund to Which Your Retirement Contributions Are Paid is a Registered Entity Saving for retirement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collective-investment-schemesunit-trusts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1225"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35612,"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions\/35612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namfisa.com.na\/educates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}