Liberty sponsored Unclaimed Benefit Funds have successfully traced and paid 32 000 beneficiaries with a value of R380 million since 2017.
Liberty acknowledges that unclaimed benefits are a significant industry issue, and we take it very seriously. Liberty sponsored Unclaimed Benefit Funds account for c. R1bn of the R42bn of unclaimed benefits across the industry. We continue to work closely with the Funds Trustees to enhance our tracing efforts, and remain fully committed to paying benefits to members as quickly as possible.
One of Liberty’s primary roles as the appointed administrator of various retirement funds is to efficiently facilitate the payment of valid benefits in a compliant manner, partnering with all stakeholders in this process, including sponsoring employers, members, fund trustees and the relevant regulators.
Liberty maintains a transparent approach in addressing the issue of unclaimed benefits. We provide regular updates to the public on unclaimed benefits through our regulatory submissions and on our website.
- Liberty sponsored Unclaimed Benefit Funds have successfully traced and paid 32 000 beneficiaries with a value of R380 million since 2017.
- All members in the Liberty sponsored Unclaimed Benefits Funds with values over R1,000 have been processed through traditional tracing methods. Liberty waives the administration fee for benefit values below R800.
- Liberty has provided a publicly available search capability on its website for potential unclaimed benefit members. This data has also been provided to the FSCA for inclusion in their industry wide search capability.
- Liberty has recently joined forces with a leading financial services collections provider to pilot an innovative member tracing campaign, including significantly enhancing the quality of member data and the potential for successful traces.
We encourage members of the public to contact us to check if they may have benefits due to them in the Liberty unclaimed benefits funds. For further information and regular updates, please refer to the Liberty Unclaimed Benefits portal at click here
Reinstatement of erroneously deregistered funds
Liberty is making progress on the reinstatement of funds cancelled in error during the industry-wide cancellations project and is committed to paying out valid claims to members and beneficiaries as soon as possible. We have deployed significant resources to prepare the remaining funds for further submission to the High Court and to expedite this complex process.
Over the course of 2007-2013, Liberty participated in the South African pension fund industry’s widescale Cancellation Project to deregister dormant retirement funds. More than 4 600 funds were deregistered during this period, unfortunately with c. 90 deregistered in error. Following a comprehensive review of our systems and processes, Liberty identified an additional c. 40 funds that were deregistered in error prior to the Cancellation Project by previous administrators, which Liberty subsequently acquired. Of the approximately 130 total funds (asset value of c. R150 million) requiring reinstatement, we have reinstated 25 funds, and applied to the High Court for the reinstatement of a further 10 (these 35 funds asset value is c. R66 million). As is the case for the 25 recently reinstated funds, Liberty will work with the appointed trustees, on reinstatement of the remaining funds, to disburse the assets either via transfers to active funds, or tracing and paying members or beneficiaries.