Benchmark fund crosses N$1.3 bn in assets

The Benchmark Retirement Fund, a Namibian umbrella fund, which was founded on 1 January 2000, announced its results for the financial year ending 31 December 2013 to members of the Fund at its annual members meeting last week. Principal Officer Kai Friedrich said the Fund’s assets grew by more than N$300 million during the 2013 financial year, exceeding N$1.3 billion assets under management for the more than 7,500 members at the end of the Fund’s financial year. Of the 7,500 members, Friedrich noted that more than 300 are individual members and more than 7,200 are members of participating employer groups. The Fund now also has in excess of 80 pensioners drawing a regular income from the Fund. If an average household has an estimated 4 family members this would mean the Fund is touching the lives of roughly 30,000 people in Namibia, he stated.

Friedrich announced that one of the milestones reached during the year was to amend the rules of the Fund to increase the late retirement age from 70 to 75. This, he said, was done to follow global trends that show increasing life-expectancies and with that, delayed retirement. Friedrich said that this rule amendment was particularly aimed at allowing longer preservation of retirement capital in order to maximize the effect of compounding of interest, especially in the late stages of a member’s working life, where this has the biggest impact. He further noted that the lower limit of early retirement according to the rules of the Fund remains at 55 years of age. Friedrich said that the continuously changing Namibian regulatory environment in terms of compliance with NAMFISA’s quarterly reporting requirements, as well as compliance with investments in unlisted investment vehicles, for example, remain a challenge for the industry. He was confident though that the Fund is taking all necessary measures to ensure that it will to comply with changing regulatory requirements.
Friedrich said that the Fund continues to place a high degree of emphasis on governance. In this regard, during 2014 the Fund finalized its risk and communication policies in terms of its governance framework.