Category: Pension

Stanbic IBTC Trustee Limited, a member of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, has called on adults to write a will and put an estate plan in place.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Ms Binta Max-Gbinije, made the call at a briefing in Lagos.

She said estate planning could be achieved through the setting up of a private trust, a will and an educational trust.

Max-Gbinije noted that Nigerians work a lot to gather wealth to own assets, hence the need to preserve family wealth and facilitate intergenerational wealth transfer.

She said will-writing should not only be done by the rich alone but any person that has savings and has been able to acquire properties from telephones to furniture, among others.

Highlighting the benefits of a will, she said it ensures that assets of the deceased are distributed to beneficiaries according to the wishes of the deceased when he or she passes on.

She said there are two kinds of will service offered by the company – Simple Will service and Comprehensive Will.

She explained that the Simple Will service covers the balance in a person’s Retirement Savings Account (RSA) and personal bank accounts irrespective of his or her Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) or bank, adding that the service is offered to individuals who would like to write their wills to safeguard these assets.

Comprehensive Will, on the   other hand, covers a person’s assets including real estate, cash in bank, shares, private companies and any other asset as determined.

She pointed out that the services of a Trustee Company can cost as low as N5000 per year as fee for a Simple Will service and N200,000 for Comprehensive Will.

She said: “A private trust is an arrangement whereby legal ownership of certain assets is transferred by you (the “Settlor”) to us (the Trustee) to be held for the benefit of your selected beneficiaries. It helps you preserve family wealth and facilitates intergenerational wealth transfer; you get to avoid the expense and delay of probate.

“Most of us have left our homes very early this morning. We will go back home late. We will work for many years. We will have savings and we will have properties. But we don’t remember to ask ourselves, if we have planned for when the inevitable happens, what do we want to happen to all the assets that we have saved?”

She said estate planning would ensure that one’s loved ones were catered for in one’s will.

here is an uneasy calm in the pension industry following the appointment of  Funso Doherty as the new Director-General, National Pension Commission (PenCom) by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

The  appointment negates the appointment of the Chairman, Premium Pension, Dikko Aliyu Abdulrahman, as the head of the organisation.

Industry sources said there had been power play in the pension industry during the search for a qualified person to replace the former PenCom chief, Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, whose tenure was cut midway.

Before this latest appointment, President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Abdulrahman as DG PenCom subject to Senate’s confirmation.

It was learnt that AbdulRahman’s appointment was met with resentment from some stakeholders who believed the appointment breached the Pension Reform Act 2014.

A source, a senior official in the industry, told The Nation that there was a great discrepancy in the appointment of AbdulRahman as DG which  has been corrected with that of Doherty.

He said the Act forbids anyone who is serving or has served as an operator three years before or after to become PenCom helmsman.

He noted that this was different from zoning, which was also a factor in Abdulrahman’s appointment.

The source said: “There have been discrepancies and conflicting issues surrounding the appointment of Abdulrahman since he was named as PenCom DG by President Buhari last month.

“He was chairman of Premium Pension and the PRA says you can’t be DG, Chairman or Commissioner if you have been an official of an operator three years before or after.

“Section 19 of the Act states that  the chairman, the Director-General and the commissioners shall be appointed by the president subject to the confirmation by the Senate.

“The Chairman, Commissioners and the Director-General of the commission shall each represent the geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

“The chairman and members of the board shall not  own controlling shares in any pension fund Administrator or Pension Fund Custodian prior to and during their tenure of office as chairman or members of board; or be directors or shareholders in any pension fund administrator or pension fund custodian prior to and during their tenure of office as chairman or members of the board.”

Doherty has over two decades of experience in investment management. Previously, he was the pioneer CEO and CIO of ARM Pension Managers, which he led from inception to become one of Nigeria’s leading Pension Fund Investment Managers. He was also the first chairman of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PENOP) from 2007 to 2010.

As an investment management professional, Doherty has held some  senior positions in leading foreign and local investment management firms including Goldman Sachs & Company and PNC Advisors in the United States, and ARM in Nigeria. He started his career in the Lagos office of Arthur Andersen.

Meanwhile, the Acting President also appointed Chairman and Commissioners for the Commission.

Alhaji Ali Usman was appointed chairman, subject to confirmation by the Senate while Mr. Manase Benga, Zaki Magawata, Ben Oviosun and Nyerere Ayim were appointed Commissioners.

The Lagos State government is preparing its workers for the opening of the transfer window in the pension industry.

The window will enable a contributor to move from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another, its Commissioner, Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr.Akintola Benson, has said.

According to him, the Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC) which is one of the agencies of the  state has also initiated and perfected electronic archiving of records of payments made to retirees of the state for preservation and protection in case of any unexpected eventualities.

He spoke during an interaction with reporters in Lagos, adding that this will ensure preservation of records of paid retirees in electronic format. It will also remove the fraudulent “ghost worker or retiree” syndrome prevalent with the administration of old pension regime due to lack of adequate record.

He said: “The Commission was also one of the specified agencies earmarked for the specialised orientation programme for redeployed management staff in the local government service and this will ensure seamless integration of officers from the local government to the state public service.

“The Commission has not stopped the sensitisation of retirees on the activities of pension fraudsters.  Despite the fact that one or two cases of these fraudsters are reported, this malaise has reduced drastically compared to what the agency used to have in the first half of 2016.

”Officers of the Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions have laboured and toiled to achieve exceptional feats in the first two years of the current administration and are committed to doing even more.

“This is because it appreciates that well-motivated and well-trained officers of the public service are best suited to conceive of workable government policies and to implement policies in ways that will translate into tangible benefits and dividends for the good people of Lagos.”