IRFA announces Best Practice Awards winners

"This award puts us at a standard; a benchmark that we've achieved - it recognises us as one of the better funds in South Africa, and that's critical for us, given our membership, being municipal workers in KwaZulu-Natal," Camilleri said.

Derek Smorenburg, chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Sanlam Umbrella Fund, picked up two IRFA Trophies and one Gold Award. "It's been a long journey. I started the first umbrella fund in 1987 in the world, the first umbrella funds rules registered in 1989, and over the years to get to this point is a partnership with Sanlam, and today we have probably one of the finest umbrella funds in the country," he said.

The Best Practices Industry Awards Trophy Winners were:

• Communication Strategy: Debswana Pension Fund
  
• Communication Project: The Foschini Group Retirement Fund
  
• Legal and Technical Compliance: Sanlam Umbrella Fund
  
• Financial Reporting: Sanlam Umbrella Fund
  
• Investment Performance: Natal Joint Municipal Fund

The Gold Standards Certificate Winners were:

• Communication Strategy: Road Freight and Logistics Industry Provident Fund, Independent Schools Association of South Africa, Natal Joint Municipal Pension Fund, The Mineworkers Provident Fund, Sanlam Umbrella Fund
  
• Communication Project: Vodacom Group Pension Fund, National Fund for Municipal Workers, Fairheads Beneficiary Fund
  
• Legal and Technical Compliance: Natal Joint Municipal Fund

Announcing the winners, Kobus Hanekom from Simeka Consultants & Actuaries, said the judges had to be convinced that the fund's strategy is working, and see the evidence that it is well run - assessments and surveys, as an example.

"We needed to be convinced that the operation is sustainable - so next year we will require entries to disclose the cost of the operation. The funds that did well are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets. We were looking for the funds that developed the most effective strategies given all of these considerations and spent members money in the most purposeful, creative and cost effective way," Hanekom said.