What Members Should Expect from Their Trustee

Pension Transparency: What Members Should Expect from Their Trustee | Retirement Edge | Standard Pensions Trust STATEMENTS AND TRANSPARENCY

Pension Transparency: What Members Should Expect from Their Trustee

Transparency is a duty you can test, not a favour you receive.

Retirement Edge Program · Weekly Pension Education
Monday, 24 August 2026

Weekly Member Education

Ask members whether they trust their pension trustee and most say yes. Ask what the trustee owes them and the answer thins out. Someone who cannot name what to expect cannot tell when it is missing, and usually finds out at retirement, when correction takes longest.

"Transparency is a duty you can test, not a favour you receive."

Transparency Is a Duty, Not a Courtesy

Under Ghana's law, a trustee must keep proper records and a members' register, appoint and oversee the fund manager and custodian, and lodge audited statements and reports under Act 766, §121.

A Tier 2 scheme must also keep proper records of the contributions made for each member under §105.

Members hold rights across the whole system: contributions properly remitted by the employer and properly recorded by the scheme, information and statements, and fair dispute resolution.

            
                Transparency becomes meaningful when a member can actually
                check what is happening with their pension.

Three Expectations Members Should Have

1. Regular Statements and Clear Communication

You should be able to see your balance, contribution history, fund performance and statements when you want them, not just when something arrives.

The Member Portal carries them, and regular statements and an annual report follow.

Communication should reach you in language you understand, through the channel you chose, so current contact details are your side of it.

You may also ask what the scheme costs you. The Act sets a maximum administrative charge on scheme funds (§163).

2. Proper Recordkeeping and Member Support

Your record is the proof of your entitlement, so it has to be right, and there has to be somewhere to take it when it is not.

Personal details you update yourself in the Portal. Where a payslip and a record disagree, the query starts with your employer.

Anything else you raise with SPT, in writing, asking for the decision to be explained.

Where it stays unresolved, you can escalate to the NPRA, with the Act's dispute-resolution process behind it under §§202–205.

3. Education as Part of the Responsibility

The statutory list does not mention education. It is nonetheless where a trustee's duty to members is either honoured or left on paper: a disclosure nobody can read protects nobody.

SPT provides member education, this programme and tools such as the Pension Calculator.

Expect plain-language material, and expect to be able to ask an ordinary question.

            
                A pension disclosure only protects a member when the member
                can understand it, access it and question it.

Yaa's Three Checks

Yaa has contributed for four years and has never opened a statement. She trusts SPT, which is a feeling, not evidence.

One evening she tests it. She activates her Member Portal and finds her balance, contribution history and current fund waiting.

The Portal shows which fund she is in but not why she is in it, so she sends that question through secure messaging and notes the date.

Then she looks up SPT on the NPRA's published list of licensed trustees.

            
                Transparency can be checked in three directions:
                your own records, your trustee's information and an
                independent regulatory record.

Why Transparency Builds Long-Term Confidence

Being told your pension is safe is not confidence.

Confidence is the same information holding up from three directions: yours, including your own payslips; an auditor's, through audited accounts and annual reports; and the regulator's, which licenses providers and publishes the approved list.

When checking your own records, remember to check the date. A recent month may still sit inside the employer's 14-day remittance window.

Trust that can be checked survives a bad market and a rumour. Trust that cannot, does not.

            
                Confidence is not simply being told that everything is fine.
                It is being able to check the information for yourself.

Key Takeaway

"Transparency is not what your trustee tells you. It is what you can check — on demand, in writing, and against an independent record."

What You Should Do Next

Main Check

Open your Member Portal and read your most recent statement. Then run the three checks:

Information on demand
A question asked in writing
An independent licence check

If you have never activated the Portal or cannot get in, ask SPT to activate it or to send you your latest statement.

Support 1: Confirm Your Contact Details

Confirm your contact details and preferred communication channel so statements and notices reach you.

Support 2: Ask Questions in Writing

Ask SPT in writing where anything is unclear, giving the date, the month in question and any relevant reference.

Keep a copy of your communication.

If the matter stays unresolved, escalate to the NPRA under the dispute-resolution process provided for in Act 766, §§202–205.

            
                The strongest form of pension confidence is information you
                can access, questions you can ask and records you can verify.

In Ghana, Under Act 766

SPT is a licensed corporate trustee for Tier 2 (mandatory occupational) and Tier 3 (voluntary) pension schemes, while Tier 1 belongs to SSNIT.

Trustee duties sit in §121, while proper per-member contribution records for Tier 2 sit in §105.

Audited books and annual reports are covered under §§166–167, while dispute resolution sits under §§202–205.

The NPRA maintains registers of licensed providers under §§165 and 192, and the employer's remittance window is set at 14 days after month-end under §63.

The law also keeps the trustee, fund manager and custodian apart, so no single party holds both the decisions and the money.

            
                Transparency is strengthened when different parts of the
                pension system can independently confirm what the others do.

Disclaimer

This material is provided for general pension education only and is not personalised financial, investment, tax or legal advice.

Duties and rights described are set out in the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766) and NPRA rules, which may change. Confirm current requirements before acting.

Yaa is an illustrative example and not a member.

Pension Transparency: What Members Should Expect from Their Trustee | Standard Pensions Trust