Question:
My husband and I have become permanent residents in Australia. We have been trying to cash in our Sanlam policies for the past 7 months. We no longer have a bank account in South Africa. What is a 'blocked rank account' that Sanlam keeps asking for? What happens in the situation that we do not have one? How can we get our money? We have filled in millions forms from Sanlam and are after 7 months no closer to the goal. We sent out our Australian Bank Account details and have given them whatever they asked for. Please can somebody help us? We are desperate. We want to cash in our 2 policies which amount to about R220 000. After 7 months is there nobody to help us? What is a blocked bank account? We cannot fly to South Africa to do this. Help!!!!!!
Answer:
Celeste,
Have you Googled 'blocked rand account'? This comes up as the first search result (courtesy of a company called CashKows, which assists with financial emigration).
Blocked rand account: this is the vehicle via which all capital transfers out of South Africa must flow for exchange control purposes, once your emigrant status has been recorded with the South African Reserve Bank. Acquiring such status will allow you to utilise emigration allowances which are currently R4 000 000 for an individual and R8 000 000 for a family unit. As an emigrant you may also surrender retirement annuities and transfer the proceeds to your local bank account, via the blocked rand account, using the said allowance. Exchange control does place restrictions upon the purposes for which funds held in a blocked rand account may be used.
We have copied their definition to save us writing it ourselves. But in essence you need to open up a non-resident bank account, say at Standard Bank (you will find out how to do this on their web site). You then need to go through the financial emigration process with SARS. They will then issue a tax directive, which will allow Sanlam to pay out your retirement annuities (net of withdrawal lump sum tax). The net sum will be paid into your blocked rand account. You can then request the bank to have the proceeds transferred to Australia.
You don't need to fly to SA to open this account, you can do so electronically/by post. However, to help with the paperwork, there are companies (such as CashKows) who can assist you if necessary (at a fee of course).
Note that we have no links with the above-mentioned companies and we do not vouch for their service.
