Abstract
This study aimed to create awareness of member representation in the retirement fund industry in South Africa, specifically in an environment where the legislation is changing to provide for various retirement reforms. These retirement reforms impact on all retirement fund types in South Africa, including pension funds, provident funds and retirement annuities. These retirement reforms are aimed at improving the retirement outcomes for members participating in retirement funds and at increasing the number of individuals participating in the retirement fund industry.
In addition to the retirement reforms taking place, the South African retirement fund industry is also consolidating into larger umbrella retirement fund arrangements, in which various employers are participating. This consolidation of funds into larger umbrella retirement fund arrangements complicates the representation of members participating in funds as they are no longer participating in the election of representatives on the boards of management of these funds.
This study investigated who should be representing retirement fund members in the changing retirement fund landscape and provides a possible framework for how retirement fund members can be represented in the future. This was achieved by examining the roles played in the retirement fund industry by various stakeholders, including retirement fund industry bodies, as well as the legislative framework and how all this allows for the representation of members and their level of participation in the retirement fund industry.
This study made use of qualitative research methods to obtain the opinions of various industry stakeholders through a series of three questionnaires and in-depth interviews in the application of the Delphi technique to collect data. In addition, industry publications, legislative changes and proposals, industry conference proceedings, as well as seminars, were reviewed and analysed in order to create a framework for the representation of retirement fund members in the retirement fund industry. The roles played by all stakeholders in the retirement fund industry were reviewed. The data was organised and categorised by using ATLAS.ti®. ATLAS.ti® is computer-assisted software developed to assist in qualitative research which is used as a tool to help in searching for specific data codes and further organising of data into groups and networks for analysis. The study considered the various stakeholders in the South African retirement fund industry affected by retirement reform proposals, the roles and the relationships among various stakeholders, and the representation of retirement fund members in the industry. The roles of industry bodies and the representation of members were investigated. Furthermore, the study recommends a framework and further potential legislative changes and amendments to ensure that the representation of members in legislative matters is not lost.