The Jake
05-08-2003, 02:23 AM
Aka. 401k plans in America.
God knows what they're called in Canada.
Out here, it's superannuation or super for short.
Basically out of every paycheck, the employer takes out a slice and stuffs it into a retirement plan for you and you're not allowed to see a dime of it until you retire.
Out here, because of the number of people who do not prepare for their retirement, the government made it mandatory that all employers MUST pay super on behalf of all employees. As a result, companies often have default institution which handles super for all staff. This is great for employees who really couldn't give a **** for the future. However it sucks for people who actually give a **** and want to change how their money is managed. For instance, because the company makes payments for you by default into their fund (thanks to the government) you CANNOT elect a fund of your choice. It goes straight into the company fund.
You can change it of course. But how often are we likely to do that?
You have to go to the bother of changing contribution details with your employer, stopping current contributions, and then rollover the contributions made from their default fund to your own. To do this every time you change jobs is just ****ing idiocy.
Over all the time I've been working, I've been with about six super plans. And withdrawing funds from each one is like extracting teeth with nothing but a pair of pliers and a bottle of scotch.
So I'm sorting out my financials. I then look at my most recent payslips for the company I was contracting for. I call up my rep there, who I get along with real well thank ****. She explains this legal crap to me and gives me a number for their nominated company.
I then realise first thing is first, verify my main super fund is ok and airtight. This is the one I want to transfer all my funds to. Only it was bought out, plans changed, all the details and contact names are totally different. 3 phone calls later, I have the info.
The second company I haven't put funds into this account for nearly 3 years now. And thanks to their ineptitude they're nearly impossible to get a hold of (four months to get a form from them to transfer out my super funds). Working on that right now. Let us hope they do not reject this form yet again for a bull**** reason (last time it was no account number, even though it was clearly there in the appropriate section).
Third company, I just called them, they're going to mail the forms out to me.... in five business days (let us hope they get here before I leave).
This is one area of people's finances they really do not want to be ****ing with and it's shrouded in so much bureaucratical bull**** that it makes it nigh impossible get **** done.
This wouldn't be a problem if people stayed in the one job for 20 years like the old days, but now it's just an epic pain in the goddamn ass.
- The Jake
God knows what they're called in Canada.
Out here, it's superannuation or super for short.
Basically out of every paycheck, the employer takes out a slice and stuffs it into a retirement plan for you and you're not allowed to see a dime of it until you retire.
Out here, because of the number of people who do not prepare for their retirement, the government made it mandatory that all employers MUST pay super on behalf of all employees. As a result, companies often have default institution which handles super for all staff. This is great for employees who really couldn't give a **** for the future. However it sucks for people who actually give a **** and want to change how their money is managed. For instance, because the company makes payments for you by default into their fund (thanks to the government) you CANNOT elect a fund of your choice. It goes straight into the company fund.
You can change it of course. But how often are we likely to do that?
You have to go to the bother of changing contribution details with your employer, stopping current contributions, and then rollover the contributions made from their default fund to your own. To do this every time you change jobs is just ****ing idiocy.
Over all the time I've been working, I've been with about six super plans. And withdrawing funds from each one is like extracting teeth with nothing but a pair of pliers and a bottle of scotch.
So I'm sorting out my financials. I then look at my most recent payslips for the company I was contracting for. I call up my rep there, who I get along with real well thank ****. She explains this legal crap to me and gives me a number for their nominated company.
I then realise first thing is first, verify my main super fund is ok and airtight. This is the one I want to transfer all my funds to. Only it was bought out, plans changed, all the details and contact names are totally different. 3 phone calls later, I have the info.
The second company I haven't put funds into this account for nearly 3 years now. And thanks to their ineptitude they're nearly impossible to get a hold of (four months to get a form from them to transfer out my super funds). Working on that right now. Let us hope they do not reject this form yet again for a bull**** reason (last time it was no account number, even though it was clearly there in the appropriate section).
Third company, I just called them, they're going to mail the forms out to me.... in five business days (let us hope they get here before I leave).
This is one area of people's finances they really do not want to be ****ing with and it's shrouded in so much bureaucratical bull**** that it makes it nigh impossible get **** done.
This wouldn't be a problem if people stayed in the one job for 20 years like the old days, but now it's just an epic pain in the goddamn ass.
- The Jake