About Our Fund

About the ARC Pension Fund

The Agricultural Research Council Pension Fund was established on 1 April 1992 to provide retirement benefits to employees who were transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Agricultural Research Council.

The Agricultural Research Council Pension Fund is a private fund, registered with the Registrar of Pension Funds (Reg No:12/8/27296).

Contributions

Member

Members can elect to contribute 7.5%, 9.5% or 11.5% of the pensionable salary to the Fund.

Employer

The employer contributes 16% of the pensionable salary, allocated as follows:

3,5% for cost of death benefits and lump sum disability benefits;
1,50% for temporary disability benefits and administration;
11% is allocated towards members’ retirement benefits.

The amount of your contributions and that of the employer will increase in direct proportion to future salary increases. The employer offers an all-inclusive, cost to company, remuneration package to its employees. The employer contribution is therefore already included in the total remuneration package. Employees may structure a pensionable salary of between 40% and 80% of the total remuneration package and may change this percentage after the finalisation of annual salary increases. All new members joining The Fund after March 2017 may structure a pensionable salary of between 50% and 80% of the total remuneration package.

More Fund Information

Fund Membership

The Fund started as a Defined Benefit Fund in 1992. On 31 March 2015 all remaining Defined Benefit Members were converted to the Defined Contribution category.

Should a member leave the service of the employer (due to resignation, dismissal, retrenchment or retirement) but does not wish to exit the fund, he/ she will become a deferred member. These members no longer contribute to the fund, but their fund credit remains invested in the chosen portfolios.

Fund Management

The Board of Trustees of the ARC Pension Fund consists of a maximum of 4 Member Elected Trustees and a maximum of 4 Employer Appointed Trustees. Trustees are appointed for a period of four (4) years which commences on 1 October of a specific year and expires 4 years later on 30 September.

The current Trustees are:

Member Elected