I suppose over the past few weeks, you may have received emails advising you to check with the nearest EPF offices on the nominations you have made for your EPF savings. I have. As a contributor, it is quite natural if you should feel alarmed.
Apparently, news was going round that several people had checked with the EPF and found their latest nominations had been erased from the EPF computer system. Effectively, it would seem that either the contributor had not made any nomination at all or an old nomination was still effective.
If there was no nomination, it would mean that the contributor did not register any beneficiary with the EPF. If he died, his EPF savings would be distributed according to the law by way of Probate or Letter of Administration. If an old nomination still stood, it meant that the contributor’s latest intended beneficiaries would receive nothing.
Imagine this scenario unfolding. A contributor had originally nominated his girl friend to be his beneficiary. After he married, he nominated his wife as his new beneficiary. But if this new nomination had gone missing and the contributor died, his EPF savings will go to his ex-girl friend and not his wife.
The extent to which this story has been circulating in the country prompted the EPF to issue a statement to deny that the names of the nominated beneficiaries had been erased.
According to Nik Affendi Jaafar – he’s the senior manager for public relations at EPF – the records were still with the EPF. Only, because the EPF was in the midst of upgrading their computer system, all the records had not been updated yet. There are about two million records left to update but he expected the whole exercise to complete by September.
Despite this clarification, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people remain unconvinced. For instance, I’ve been asked what will happen to a contributor’s savings if he were to die before his latest nomination is updated into the EPF computer system. How can the EPF ensure that the money goes to the latest beneficiaries?
I’m not an EPF expert so this is a question that only the EPF can answer. But I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes if something were to go wrong.
All I say is that even though there is a clarification and assurance from the EPF, for your own self interest, do still make it a point to check your nominations with the nearest EPF office. It’ll give you some peace of mind.
Note: This matter applies only to non-Muslims. For Muslims, the nominee is only an executor and he has a duty to distribute the EPF savings according to the Faraid.