I recently submitted a requested to opt out of a pension fund program (because my new employer is not a member - BHIMPF) in Nassau.

I was told that the request would take six to nine weeks for processing. After some five months, I was informed by the personell @ the pension fund that the Casino Management (in Grand Bahama) did not make any contributions since 2002. What should I do?

Who is the Chairperson of the Bahamas Hotel Industry Management Pension Fund?

Why were statements issued by the pension fund stating the amount of contributions - if non were made?

Are pensions schemes in the Bahamas just that? A farce ?

I hope that you kept any records that show the withdrawal of the monies for that purpose. First of all, contact the person that is in charge of distributing your payroll from wherever you were employed. Make any necessary photo copies of any checks stubs showing your contributions or statements from the pension fund that you have a certain amount to your credit.
Whatever you do, do not let any of them have any of your originals. Start working up the ladder from your employer payroll department supervisor all the way up the ladder until you get it resolved.

You might want to raise the question to others that were employed with you to see if they have checked their pension funds lately. If there are discrepancies, and you all were to have the funds input by the employer it is time to bring a class action suit in to ensure that the monies are input into your fund plus any interest that it could have gained had it been. I am sure there should be a law with a certain time period that employers are to send the monies into these funds!

Sounds like another case of mismanagement. Who is doing the checks and balances and keeping up with quality control issues? Who is auditing the books of these employers to ensure that they are in compliance??? There should be within each company a certain number of people that are responsible in payroll to ensure that all taxes, pension funds, etc are sent to the proper authorities in a timely manner. And there should be an officer or group of that stay on top of things and keep a data base of who owes and when. Red flags go up if they don't have the funds properely accountable when due and immediate contact made and fines imposed.

Oh well, I could go on with this one forever!!!

Wow, sadly, I'm not surprised.

Ejluv has offered spectacular advice on this issue and I wanted to add you should try to find the administrators and their cronies at the beginning of your search, before they start passing the buck around and causing confusion. The fact that there are statements verified that your fmr. company paid into the vested plan. Unfortunately, the payments were probably siphoned off.

My question though to anyone out there with pension experience is, are there any individual pension plans that one can invest in to avoid this kind of stress with an employee-based plan? (Rather than just opening a savings account?) :yoyo: