Multi-fund structure widening investment opportunities in pension industry —Trusfund

The Trustfund Pensions Limited has advised employers of Labour and employees to embrace the multi-fund structure in pension scheme, saying that its introduction recently has widened investment opportunities in the pension industry.

Besides, Trusfund said the introduction of multi-fund structure has offered investment freedom to workers.

Trustfund gave the advice as it holds interactive forum with stakeholders on regulatory compliance and other aspect of pension scheme.

The Managing Director of Trustfund Pensions, Mrs Helen Da-Souza, told participants at the 2018 Employers’ Forum/Interactive session in Abuja that the new structure allows higher risk taking that will deliver greater investment returns to pension contributors.

Mrs Da-Souza, who was represented by the Chief Compliance Officer of Trustfund, Rachael Osa Obi, told them to embrace the new structure for ultimate benefits.

While explaining the the mode and categories of the structure, she said “The multi-fund structure is a new introduction in the industry. The essence of multi-fund structure is to categorise funds according to age and risk appetite.

“There are four categories of multi-fund structure. Category four is for retirees’ investments that do not involve a lot of risks because of the age of the people in this category.

“Fund three is for those who are fifty and above while fund two is the default fund that warehouses all the workers. Fund one is for younger workers who are just entering the labour force and have high-risk appetite.”

She further explained that fund one will yield more investment returns because of the kind of investment the PFAs are allowed to do.

According to her, to be in fund one is not automatic as workers have to apply to their Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to move.

She said the category of people that can be in fund one are those who are below 50 years.

“With this multi-fund approach, the PFAs are allowed to play in more sectors of the economy. Just as the risks are high, so is the return on investment. This gives freedom to pension contributors to decide where they want to invest,” she added.

She expressed dissatisfaction at the lackadaisical attitude of Pension Desk Officers (PDOs) and their lack of due diligence; which she said often leads to gaps in fund remittances.