The fund can be assessed by contacting your PFA to notify them of your retirement/disengagement, your PFA shall in turn advise you on what mode of payment is available to you and the necessary documents to submit in order to enable you make any withdrawal from your account.
What happens is that your entitlements will be paid to your beneficiary under a Will or the spouse and children of the deceased or in the absence of a spouse and child, to the appointed next-of-kin or any person designated by you during your life time or in the absence of such designation, to any person appointed by the Probate Registry as the administrator of your estate. If the RSA holder dies intestate, the Next of Kin is expected to provide Letters of Administration alongside other documents as advised by your PFA.
A retiree who is 50 years and above, whose Retirement Savings Account (RSA) balance is N550,000.00 or below, shall have the balance paid to him/her en bloc since it may not be feasible to commit the balance to programmed withdrawal. However, for others above 50 years with RSA balances in excess of N550,000.00, a minimum lump sum withdrawal of 25% is allowed and the maximum is subject to a formula that ensures that what is left is sufficient to procure an annuity from a Life Insurance Company or fund a programmed withdrawal that will generate at least 50% of your last salary at retirement on a monthly or quarterly basis for your expected life span. Both modes of withdrawal are subject to approval by the National Pension Commission.
The Pension Reform Act 2004 which governs the treatment of contributions made to NSITF, provides that the transfer of assets from NSITF to Pension Fund Administrators (“PFAs”) will commence from July 2009 (Section 42(2)(3) which is 5years after the Act commenced. Contributors are therefore required to submit through their PFA: their Original NSITF Certificate, a means of identification and complete an NSITF transfer application form which can be downloaded from our website: www.oakpensions.com. Where there is no original certificate; the member would provide the following alongside the application form to the PFA;
a. For contributors who have lost their NSITF certificates, they should provide a sworn court affidavit, in addition to a letter of indemnity from the employer and a letter confirming the identity of the contributor also from the employer.
b. Contributors that were never issued NSITF certificates should provide a letter of indemnity and a confirmation letter, both from the employer.
Your PFA will instruct its PFC to make payments to you upon retirement from your RSA as specified in the Act and on a basis agreed with you under a programmed withdrawal. Under an annuity arrangement, payments will come from the insurance company.
Your RSA is credited with contributions as received from your employer. If you are a Federal Government employee, the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) remits on your behalf and has advised that such complaints be directed to them for verification and correction. Private sector employees should revert to the company HR/Accounts department for verification of contributions.
Such additional contributions are called Voluntary Contributions and it is possible for an employee to make such contributions alongside the mandatory contributions through his/her employer.
The Pension Reform Act 2004 makes provision for RSA holders who have either been redundant; their appointment terminated or have been disengaged by their employer to have access to 25% of the balance in their RSA provided they have been without job for at least six months.
Please note that employees who resign voluntarily before age 50 cannot make any withdrawal from their RSA.
To change any such information you are required to fill a Change of Personal Information Form indicating the information you want to change/update. The form is to be signed, dated and thumb printed authorizing the PFA to effect the changes on the database. For a change of name to be effected, you need to provide a change of name document (Sworn Affidavit, Newspaper publication or Marriage Certificate).
All those managing or keeping custody of pension funds and assets will be licensed and continually regulated and supervised by the National Pension Commission. |
