Worst pension fund named

Johannesburg - The worst performing pension fund was named by the Pension Fund Adjudicator in Johannesburg on Monday.

Mamodupi Mohlala identified the Private Security Sector Provident fund, administered by NBC, as the worst performing pension fund.

"There is a clear indication that the funds are failing to meet the standard required of them," Mohlala said, noting that only two funds performed well in the assessment.

The best performing fund was the Lifestyle Retirement Annuity Fund, and the second best was the Professional Provident Society Retirement Annuity Fund.

Mohlala said these were the only two funds that obtained the 70% rating, deeming them acceptable by the office of the adjudicator.

The adjudicator deals with complaints regarding private sector pension funds.

"All the others failed to meet the pass mark of 70%," she said.

The need for the scorecard arose as the adjudicator's office received a staggering amount of complaints about pension funds.

At least 390 pension funds were assessed for the period from September 2008 to September 2009.

Of these 390 funds, the office had received one complaint each for about 207 of them.

It had received 345 complaints on the Private Security Sector Provident fund, and 157 complaints about the Central Retirement Annuity Fund.

Mohlala said the need for a scorecard was highlighted with the introduction of President Jacob Zuma's complaints hotline earlier this month.

"The first call that was taken by the president himself was a complaint about access to pension contributions... This points to the need for the scorecard," she said.

The ratings that pension funds received would be referred to the Financial Services Board.

- Sapa