Section 37C of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 imposes various duties on the Board of Trustees insofar as the distribution of death benefits is concerned - without providing any guidelines as to how it is to be achieved. Failure by the Board to properly investigate the matter renders its decision reviewable and will amount to maladministration.

This course will explain the process to be followed in terms of section 37C. The cases discussed will provide guidance to trustees.

When and where?

2025 dates: 12 to 13 November 2025, 14:00 to 17:00 SAST

2026 dates: 1 to 3 June 2026, 9:00 to 12:00 SAST

This course will be held remotely, most likely on Zoom - exact details will be sent to registered participants a few days before the course.

Course outline

In this course, we will cover:

  1. Legislative overview – the objective of section 37C
  2. Duties imposed on the Board of Trustees
  3. Identifying and tracing “dependants”
  4. Beneficiary nominations
  5. Benefit allocations to identified dependants
  6. When does the duty to pay arise
  7. Principle of de bloedige hand erf niet
  8. Paid-up members and postponed retirees
  9. Case law

Who will benefit from this course?

Principal officers, trustees, legal advisors, fund administrators, fund consultants

Presenter

Lize De La Harpe is a senior legal advisor within the Regulatory Division of Sanlam Life and Savings. She is an admitted attorney with nearly 20 years financial services experience. She obtained her LLB degree from the University of Stellenbosch in 2005 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning (CFP) from the University of the Free State in 2008. 

Lize currently serves as the Chairperson of the Sanlam Unclaimed Benefit Pension & Provident Funds as well as the Sanlam Beneficiary Fund. She also serves as a trustee on the Sanlam Easy Retirement Plan Fund, as alternate trustee on the Sanlam Staff Umbrella Fund and as a member elected representative for the Sanlam Group (as a participating employer) of the Sanlam Umbrella Fund Joint Forum. She currently serves on the National Steering Committee of the Pension Lawyers Association as well as on ASISA's legal and technical committee. 

Lize is extremely passionate about the retirement fund industry and has written numerous articles on legal developments and high-profile court cases.

How much?

2025 fee: R2,970 per person

2026 fee: See course brochure

Certificate

A digital certificate of attendance from UCT will be issued to those who attend the full course.

Please note that the digital certificate can only be viewed on a secure portal. It cannot be downloaded or printed. You will have the option of ordering a hard copy of the certificate at your own cost, including the cost of the courier fee. More information is available here.

No certificate will be issued without the full course fee having been received. Please allow up to three weeks after the end of the course for certificates to be processed.

How to sign up

Complete and submit the registration form. You will then be given the payment information. Please note that your registration is not complete until payment has been made.

One or two days before the course, we will send you the Zoom link. You will need to register and use a password to access the course.

Registrations close three days before the course starts.

Download the brochure. Download the 2026 brochure.

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