Alexforbes Unclaimed Benefits Contact Details

You can search for unclaimed retirement money yourself, free, through the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. Alexforbes publishes the full set of FSCA search channels on its own unclaimed benefits page, and they are listed below. Nobody needs to be paid a share of your benefit to find it for you.

Official provider route

Product or service support

The FSCA maintains the central unclaimed benefits search, and these are the channels Alexforbes publishes for it. Use the one that suits you: an online search on the FSCA website; an email enquiry quoting an identity number to [email protected]; a general email enquiry to [email protected]; an SMS of your identity number to 30913; a general SMS enquiry to 30766; submissions by fax on 086 578 1183; toll free telephone enquiries on 0800 20 3722; or a walk in visit to River Walk Office Park, Block B, 41 Matroosberg Road, Ashlea Gardens.

Eligibility, account or policy requirements

You will need the identity number of the member, and it helps to have the name of the employer and the approximate dates of employment, because benefits are traced against employment and fund records rather than against a bank account. If you are claiming as a beneficiary rather than as the member, expect to prove the death and your relationship to the member, since the fund must establish who is legally entitled before it pays. Alexforbes states that the first 24 months after money becomes unclaimed are the crucial period, that its fund searches a number of databases to trace members, and that tracing agents are appointed for benefits above R7 500 where database tracing has not succeeded.

Escalation route

Be careful of anyone offering to find your pension for a fee or a percentage. The FSCA search above is free and you can run it yourself, so a tracing service charging a share of the benefit is charging you for something you can do at no cost. Never pay an upfront fee to release your own money, and never send identity documents to an unverified party. If a retirement fund or its administrator fails to pay a benefit that is due, or does not answer you, the complaint goes to the Pension Funds Adjudicator, which handles complaints about retirement funds and is the correct body here rather than an insurance ombud. A complaint about the advice given by a financial adviser goes to the FAIS Ombud on 012 762 5000, and the FSCA is the conduct regulator for the industry.

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