Leaving your job? Don’t rush the decision on your retirement money.
Resigning, retrenched or changing employers? Understand your pension and provident fund options before you withdraw, transfer or preserve one of your biggest financial assets.
What’s happening with your career?
The right questions—and sometimes the tax treatment—can differ depending on why you are leaving employment.
Understand what can happen to your vested, savings and retirement components and what choices may be available.
See why qualifying redundancy or retrenchment can have different lump-sum tax treatment.
Compare transferring to a new employer fund with other preservation routes.
Estimate the tax on an ordinary withdrawal and see an illustrative long-term preservation comparison.
Your retirement fund may be one of your largest financial assets.
Taking cash can feel like the simplest option when leaving a job, but it can trigger tax and reduce the amount left invested for retirement. The first step is understanding what is actually accessible under your fund rules and the Two-Pot system.
Before you cash out, run the numbers.
Estimate ordinary withdrawal tax using the SARS 2027 withdrawal table, or compare an illustrative cash-out decision with keeping money invested until retirement.
Retirement fund
Future values depend on assumptions and are not guaranteed investment returns.
Clear answers for real retirement-fund decisions
What to check before you choose cash, transfer or preservation.
Understand the difference between ordinary withdrawal and qualifying redundancy treatment.
Understand the vested, savings and retirement components.
The decision you make today can affect decades of retirement.
Preservation is not automatically right for everyone, and taking cash is not automatically wrong. The goal is to understand the tax, access, investment and long-term consequences before deciding.
Know what is accessible
Fund rules and Two-Pot components determine what can and cannot be taken in cash.
Understand the tax
Lump-sum tables are cumulative, and qualifying retrenchment can differ from ordinary resignation.
Compare the long term
Model the effect of keeping retirement capital invested before you make an irreversible choice.
Get help before you make an irreversible decision.
Tell us what is happening and the approximate value of your retirement fund. Where personalised assistance is requested, your enquiry may be referred to an appropriately authorised financial adviser/FSP.