Could I lose my pension in the Covid-19 crisis?

Stephen Katzenellenbogen, a wealth manager at NFB Private Wealth Management, answered:

Great questions. The current market conditions are making even seasoned investors rethink their past decisions and their approach going forward.

Let’s start on the risk of losing your pension fund.

You get two types of pension funds: a defined benefit fund, and a defined contribution fund.

The way you have framed your question leads me to believe you are in a defined contribution fund. In a defined benefit fund, the security of your investment is with the employer – they give you a defined pension on retirement.

However, a defined contribution fund’s liability is only to the extent of the value of the fund’s investments, which are market-linked.

So the risk of you losing your pension is based on the performance of the underlying investments.

While the value of your accumulated pension benefit may be volatile, and a fair bit below its all-time high, it’s not going to be zero.

The asset allocation of a pension fund is governed in terms of Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act, which limits the allocation to shares at 70%.

Typically, in a group scheme, the equity allocation would be below this.

You should reach out to your previous employer and get some detail around how the pension fund is invested so you can get an understanding of the market risk.

On to the next part of your question, where you ask whether to cash in or preserve your pension fund benefit.

Depending on the value of your pension benefit there is likely to be some tax payable if you cash it in. While on tax, based on current legislation, the investment growth within a pension or preservation pension fund is not subject to tax – whereas a discretionary investment will be subject to some form of tax, be it income, dividend- withholding, or capital gains tax.

It’s likely to be tax-punitive for you to cash in your investment.

Personally, I prefer a preservation fund, as opposed to leaving an accumulated benefit with an employer.

The main reason for this is that you have control of your money in terms of where and how it is invested. It may be that your costs are lower in an employer scheme, so you’ll need to decide what is important to you to help you make your decision.

Also, remember that you have the chance to make a withdrawal from a preservation fund before retirement – in other words, you will always have access to liquidity, although this is not recommended.

Regardless of whether you decide to preserve your accumulated pension benefit or stay in your previous employer’s fund, we would not advocate sitting in cash.

Your age, risk propensity and overall portfolio construction will determine your asset allocation (the split between cash, bonds, property and equity), where it is very unlikely this would ever result in a 100% allocation to cash.

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