Johannesburg - The Financial Services Board (FSB) has run out of patience with pension funds that have not submitted information on surpluses and says it will appoint a tribunal to take over from trustees of funds that do not respond by the end of the year.
The FSB had given funds until April to submit valuations of surpluses, but only 40 percent of the 16 000 pension schemes responded. Although the regulator has not issued an estimate on outstanding surpluses and unclaimed benefits, some industry sources put the amount at between R60 billion and R80 billion. Some of the outstanding benefits go as far back as 1980 and there are concerns that some members have died.
Chief actuary Mike Codron said last week that the regulator was concerned that because some funds had not submitted information on surpluses, thousands of people were being prejudiced. The FSB had advised funds, through their administrators, that if they failed to submit the outstanding information, the regulator would appoint a tribunal, which was an expensive option.
It would be a drain on pension fund resources and would call into question the fiduciary responsibilities of trustees, who would leave funds to the mercy of the tribunal.
 According to statistics released by the FSB in February, hundreds of millions of rands lay unclaimed in pension fund benefits. At the time, information obtained from 967 funds had shown unclaimed benefits of R970 million.
Benefit Recovery Services (BRS), a tracing solutions company, said the FSB had not done enough to push funds to submit the outstanding data on surpluses and unclaimed benefits. Sandile Mabuza, the head of marketing and sales at BRS, said it was time for the FSB to penalise those funds that had not complied and to adopt a proper strategic plan on unclaimed benefits and fund surpluses.
But Codron rebutted the allegations that the FSB was stalling on unclaimed benefits and surpluses. He said BRS and similar organisations were not regulated entities. Funds that were contemplating using their services had to consider their fees and effectiveness. He added that the FSB had received several complaints about such organisations.
By Tonny Mafu
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