Moving funds into a living annuity upon maturity
Question
I will be retiring at the end of this year, and the advice is that I should transfer my funds to a living annuity, which will pay a monthly amount for my lifetime.
I am not sure that this is shariah compliant and would please like advice on this.
Answer
We assume that you have a provident fund with your current employer. If all the funds (from the provident fund) will be paid out to you upon retirement, then you should move the funds into an interest-free banking account, where you will have complete access to the funds. You may then use the funds according to your needs. On the other hand, if you are only permitted to withdraw one third of the funds upon maturity and required to re-invest the remaining two thirds as per government regulation, then you may invest the two-thirds into a living annuity. However, in this instance you shouldn’t utilize more than the invested two-thirds. In other words, if you invested one million Rand, then you are not permitted to use more than a million Rand.
- Answered by
- Mufti Mohammed Desai
Fatawa SA is an independent, read-only index of fatawa already published by Darul Ifta Ibn Masood. It is not a fatwa service. For your own situation, ask the issuing Darul Ifta directly.