Don't hide Financial Dependants - S37C of Pension Fund Act скачать в хорошем качестве

Don't hide Financial Dependants - S37C of Pension Fund Act

when a member of a retirement fund dies before reaching retirement age (and if the rules of the particular fund permit), the lump sum benefit which is referred to as the “death benefit”) must be paid to the member’s dependants and/or nominees. Section 37C of the Pension Funds Act regulates the payment of death benefits. The primary objective of section 37C is to ensure that those persons who were dependent on the deceased member are not left destitute after his/her death, irrespective of whether or not the deceased was legally required to maintain them. Section 37C imposes three primary duties on the Board of trustees, namely to: Identify and trace “dependants” (as defined in section 1 of the Act) and those persons, if any, who have been nominated by the deceased member; Make benefit allocations on a fair and equitable basis; and Determine an appropriate mode of payment of the death benefit. Section 37C accordingly imposes a duty on the Board to conduct a proper investigation to determine all the “dependants” of the deceased member. What this means is that the trustees cannot merely follow the beneficiary nomination made by the member during his/her lifetime – the Board must establish who the persons are who fall within the ambit of “dependant” as defined in the Act. Once the Board has identified all the dependants the next stage of the enquiry would be to examine the needs of each dependant so that it can make an equitable distribution amongst them. In doing so, it has to consider all the relevant facts to the exclusion of irrelevant facts. Once the trustees have established the needs of each identified dependant they will distribute the death benefit accordingly. “When making an ‘equitable distribution’ amongst dependants the board of management has to consider the following factors: the age of the dependants; the relationship with the deceased; the extent of dependency; the wishes of the deceased placed either in the nomination and/or his last will; and financial affairs of the dependants including their future earning capacity potential.