Momentum Cost Me My Portuguese Residency — R3.6 Million Held Hostage by Incompetence

Momentum Corporate destroyed my life abroad through sheer incompetence and a complete absence of leadership accountability. I submitted a preservation fund withdrawal in August 2025 — identical in every way to my spouse's application, submitted the same day. Her funds were paid within weeks. Mine became a 7-month nightmare that cost me my Portuguese residence visa. The failures were systematic: GIB delayed submitting my application by 40 days while my spouse's sailed through. Momentum staff incorrectly blocked my withdrawal claiming funds were "non-vested." When SARS repeatedly declined the directive, Momentum blamed my travel history — a claim directly contradicted by my spouse's identical, approved application. The real cause? Momentum's own system submitted conflicting dates to SARS across multiple applications, triggering Error 4544. I had to personally visit SARS to identify and correct Momentum's data capture error. Their staff should have caught this months earlier. By the time the directive was finally issued in February 2026, my Portuguese visa had expired. I lost my legal right to reside in Portugal because Momentum could not correctly capture a date. Even after a valid directive for R3,629,297.59 was issued, funds sat unpaid for 12 days while the JSE crashed — costing an estimated R199,600 in lost value. Momentum denied this affected me. A second directive was then required for a R273,314 shortfall caused by their own processing failures. I placed the CEO, COO and Senior Leadership on formal notice. They did nothing. If Momentum cannot manage a straightforward withdrawal without losing a client's home country, ask yourself: are your retirement funds truly safe in their hands? FAIS Ombud and FSCA referrals are being prepared.