Disappointing and unprofessional service from Old Mutual

I have a Retirement Annuity with Old Mutual which effective from July 2014. Due to financial constraints, I made the policy paid up in June 2015.

Being a paid-up policy, a monthly Premium Reduction Charge (recovery expenses not recovered) was deducted on a monthly basis. This meant that the return of the policy was diminished as Unit Trust dividends were also used to fund the Premium Reduction Charge. Although a transfer cost of just over R6000.00 is being app****, I decided to transfer the policy to a different service provider.

On the 18th of February 2023. I made the transfer request via email to Old Mutual Customer Service Centre. I was informed that a quote will be sent to me. On the 23rd of February I enquired on the status. On 24th of February I was informed that a quote will be sent to me directly from Old Mutual’s Section 14 department.

On the 27th February I received the quote and the required documentation to be completed for a transfer. The required documents were: • Copy of identification document. • Copy of fully completed application form to, or evidence of existing membership of, another Retirement Annuity fund. • Section 14 transfer form.

The above were completed and submitted to the Section 14 department via email on 3rd March.

As I did not receive a response from the Section 14 Department acknowledging receipt of the documentation or informing me whether the Section 14 transfer had commenced, I decided to call the Old Mutual Customer Service centre on 14th March.

I was shocked to hear that a document, Collecting Outstanding Information for an Individual, was outstanding. This document was not sent to me together with the original set of documents that I received on 27th of February. I duly completed this form and emailed their Customer Service centre on 14th March. I was informed that it will take between 5 to 7 business days for this request to be processed. Had I not queried the status of the transfer, weeks and possibly months, would have gone by with me being under the impression that the transfer was in progress.

The value of the policy has since dropped. With these inordinate delays my fear is that the transfer value is going to drop further.

As I decided to move my RA to another service provider, It seems Old Mutual has a don’t care attitude.

I am extremely disappointed with their unprofessional service I received. After this experience, I am just glad that bulk of my investments are not with Old Mutual.