Your Member Account Balance
SuperFund’s main aim is to help you save money towards your retirement. Your Member Account Balance (sometimes also called “Accumulated Credit”) is the pot of money you have saved up since you joined SuperFund (or the Old Mutual Staff Retirement Fund before that), taking into account both your contributions and the investment return earned to date.
How does my Member Account Balance work?
- Your monthly contributions are deducted from your salary and added to Old Mutual’s contributions, and these accumulate over your working lifetime so you can purchase a pension/annuity (an income for the rest of your life) when you decide to retire.
- This pool of money (your Member Account Balance) is invested to earn investment returns – so that you can benefit from the power of compound growth on your savings for up to 40 years or more.
When can I get my hands on my Member Account Balance?
The bad news (which is actually good news) is that you can’t actually access your Member Account Balance, except in the case of the following events:
- Retirement
- Leaving Old Mutual’s employment, due to dismissal, retrenchment or resigning.
- If you pass away while you are an Old Mutual employee.
This isn’t our rule – it’s the law! But the reason that it is actually good news that you can’t easily access your retirement savings, is because it helps you to protect one of your most valuable assets. If you dip into your retirement savings before your retirement, you significantly reduce the chance of having enough to live on in your retirement. This is true whether you’re 21 or 51!
So… if you are leaving Old Mutual, think carefully about the benefits of making use of SuperFund’s Preserver option, or to consider transferring your retirement savings into an appropriate preservation fund or RA fund (or even your new employer’s fund), to make sure it is still there when you retire!
