Deputy Managing Director Marthinuz Fabianus talks about the importance of engaging with fund members.

It has been so many years since I have been on the road to talk to groups of members of pension funds. This may explain why I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated recent road trips I embarked on during March to engage and present to members. The exercise evoked good memories of my early encounters with members across different industries, from all levels of employees and from across the length and breadth of the country more than 20 years ago in some cases.

My first session was with over 300 factory workers of a fishing company. Even though this is obviously a very large group and you will expect not to have an effective and meaningful conversation, the opposite was true. The group was very attentive, enthusiastic and engaging. It was in hindsight pleasing to observe that the group consisted of many who were part of the same group that I consulted to more than 10 years ago and were at that stage very hostile as they were filled with distrust, ignorance, with anger and disappointment amongst many negative feelings. This was because their previous pension fund at the time was poorly managed and the members were kept in the dark about the affairs of the pension fund. Having provided them with a lot of education, assurances and commitments for the transition (which were obviously lived up to), assured me of a respectable return encounter. This time around, members were interested in finding out if the benefits offered by the fund could be improved further. They made suggestions to be allowed to make additional or voluntary contributions and suggested an increase of the group funeral benefits. They also requested that their pension fund savings be used as security for housing loans from financial institutions. This is the kind of constructive conversations trustees and pension fund service providers alike should and can have when members are happy with the management of their pension fund.

My second session was with a much smaller group of white collar mining employees. In this session, the members where facing an imminent retrenchment from their employment and thus had a bleak outlook. To make matters worse, the average prudential portfolio returns were depressed over the past year as a result of overall an down turn and volatility in financial markets that prevailed and continue unabated for the past 2 years.  This scenario affirms the point that pension fund investments are long term in nature and should not have to be called upon in the short term, lest it be perceived incorrectly as disappointing.  Instead, members of pension funds should be educated to plan financially for certain eventualities, e.g. sudden loss of income.

My third engagement with groups of members during the course of March this year was with another relatively big group of educationalists from the vocational sector. This group also had various questions they needed answers on but focused on the stringent guidelines laid down by the Pension Funds Act regarding the disposition of benefits on the death of a pension fund member, as well as the income tax deductibility of pension fund contributions.

Unless trustees in particular make a point to engage and have face-to-face contact with members, I would venture to suggest they will not really be able to stay on top of the pension fund needs of their members and risk providing  benefits that are out of pace with member needs. 

Marthinuz Fabianus is Deputy Managing Director at Retirement Fund Solutions. He graduated from Namibian University of Science & Technology with a Diploma in Commerce and Bachelors in Business Management. He completed a senior management development programme from University of Stellenbosch and various short courses including a Macro-economic policy course which he completed at the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy. Marthinuz has 23 years industry experience.