The PetroSA Retirement Fund is a defined contribution retirement fund. The long-term investment performance of a defined contribution retirement fund affects the size of your retirement benefits. The Trustees understand that a key area in which the Fund needs to succeed is to provide members with appropriate investment portfolios and to provide sufficient and appropriate information for members to make informed decisions.

The starting point of in setting the investment strategy is to define the purpose of the Fund. Put another way, the Trustees have tried to answer the question – “Why does the Fund exist?” The Trustees have answered this question as follows:

“The Fund exists to target reasonable and competitive retirement benefits for members. A reasonable retirement benefit for an in-service member with 35 years service at retirement and an average career progression is a capital sum of some 9 to 10 times  pensionable salary at retirement. The Fund must also provide a reasonable (but appropriately limited) choice of investment vehicles to those members who require more control over their retirement fund investments and who prefer to take responsibility for their own investment decisions.”

The reasonable retirement benefit is a target that cannot be guaranteed. The target is based on the assumptions that 15% of the member’s pensionable salary will be set aside as retirement savings, that the investments will earn at least 4.5% per annum in excess of inflation over the long term, and that the member will retire at age 65. 

The Fund’s investment strategy is detailed in its Investment Policy Statement. This section covers the following:

• Investment philosophy the Trustees have adopted
• Investment objectives for the portfolios
• Investment approach
• Approach adopted by the Fund
• How the Fund chose the investment managers

Click here for the full document.

Disclaimers 

Investment is a complex area and every attempt has been made to simplify this for ease of understanding. This may result in some areas being covered in relatively little detail. Readers should note that:

• Past investment performance is not necessarily a guide to future investment performance. The statistics shown in the guide are based on past performance; 
• The information contained in this guide does not constitute advice by either the Board of Trustees, nor its advisors; and 
• Members may need to seek expert financial advice before making an investment decision.