Happy New Year and welcome back!  We hope each of you enjoyed the holiday season, and were able to spend quality time with family and friends.  Time away from our everyday tasks can be remarkably restorative and help us to reflect on the year that was, and to look forward to new opportunities and challenges ahead.  We are confident that, as always, you can return to work with renewed enthusiasm and vigour.

On 1 March 2018, the risk benefits of the fund changed.  Of note is the voluntary funeral benefit that has increased from R16500 to R20000 at a premium of R20 per member per month.  Employees often find this to be a valuable benefit.  Those who are not currently on this cover have an opportunity to opt in by 30 April 2018.  Should you require any additional information on this scheme, please contact Jennifer Damane on jdamane@oldmutual.com

The recent significant market events related to Steinhoff International Holdings and its subsidiaries, confirms the importance of the multi manager approach, which leads to sufficient diversifications to protect against such events.

Understanding the difference between a pension and provident fund forms the basis for understanding how your fund works.  The main difference between a pension and provident fund is that with a provident fund you can take all your fund savings as a cash lump sum at retirement.  With a pension fund you may take up to one third of your money as a cash lump sum and you must use the rest to buy a pension for life.