The SCA delivers a groundbreaking judgment on pension benefits for deceased members' dependents.
A retirement fund has 12 months from the date it becomes aware of a member’s death - not from the date of death itself - to trace dependents and pay out the death benefit.
In a groundbreaking judgment for dependents of pension benefits following the death of a loved one, the SCA has affirmed the Pension Funds Adjudicator’s ruling in this regard. The court dismissed an appeal against the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court’s earlier judgment, brought by the South African Retirement Annuity Fund that had sought to overturn the Adjudicator’s decision.
The Adjudicator found in favour of the complainant, Sophia Viljoen, criticising the fund for bypassing a proper investigation and instead allocating the benefit to the deceased’s estate “through the back door".
The Adjudicator emphasised that the 12-month period refers to tracing beneficiaries, not to a general payment deadline. Since tracing requires investigation, the obligation only arises once the fund learns of the member’s death, it holds. “It is clear that the fund will not know if there are dependents or not without conducting an investigation,” the Adjudicator said, declaring the fund’s decision unlawful.
