Return on Retirement annuity

So I made the mistake in 2013 to invest my retirement annuity with Metropolitan. A big mistake! I have recently transferred by RA (with a huge struggle) to another institution, an asset management company actually specialises in investments, unlike Metropolitan who’s main business is not investments. I have calculated the total contributions made into Metropolitan’s RA fund which amounted for the total period from 2013 to R28 646. Upon my enquiry with the fund value before my transfer, I was told the value is R26 028. Now my question – where did the R2 617 disappear to? It was probably large amounts of commission and broker fees paid to the advisors. Then with the transfer of the retirement annuity, an amount of R2 029 was refer deducted off my fund value in order to transfer the money to another fund. In total R4 646 (an entire year’s contribution) was lost on a total contribution of R28 646, this is 16.2% cost deducted, with no growth in the fund value. Is a retirement annuity not supposed to grow, instead of declining? After increases of 10% annually, the fund shows negative growth! The opportunity costs are also way more than this – if u had to invest the money into a normal bank account I would have been better off today. Don’t trust those advisors who promise you millions in 30 years time, because your contribution increase with 10% anyway. Metropolitan is definitely not an institution to “mess around” with you retirement funds, because they just take their commission and fees and leave you with less than what you actually contributed! PLEASE NEVER INVEST MONEY IN METROPOLITAN’s RA’s! They don’t show returns!!