EMPLOYEE'S PROVIDENT FUND (EPF)

EMPLOYEE'S PROVIDENT FUND (EPF)

This is an important reminder on EPF beneficiaries. Kindly forward to your friends especially the Non-Bumi. Make sure they do the necessary to name their beneficiaries. Be a help and pass this info to all your friends. It pays not to be ignorant. Please read on and do take the appropriate action of naming your EPF beneficiaries or updating your nomination :

1) Scenario, Imagine this : A EPF contributor with a non-working wife and 3 school-going children. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He has been contributing to the EPF since he started work as an engineer about 25 years ago and have a sizeable amount of savings. However, the widow approaches the EPF for the savings she is informed that he had named his 1st girlfriend as the beneficiary and never got to updating his nomination. Therefore, the widow is not entitled to a cent of the money even you have a will . (In case of Muslims, there is still recourse under the Syariah Laws) For Non-Muslims, however, there is real concern that your life-long savings may not reach your dependants.) The above scenario may seem unlikely to you but such cases are very common.

2) Findings of the EPF. Many EPF contributors either do not name any beneficiary or else fail to update their nomination as conditions warrant. As it stands, about 76% of EPF's 8.51 million members have not made any nomination. And out of the 24% who have, many have not updated their nomination. All your savings and the dividends accumulated over the years may not go to those who need it the most if you do not name a beneficiary or do not update your nomination. What happens if :-
a) Failure to make a nomination. If a EPF member has not made any nomination, his savings will be distributed in accordance to the law.
-Letters of Administration (LA)In general, when no nominee is named, the member's family will have to produce what is known as LA and submit this to the EPF in order to withdraw the savings. (The LA authorises the person appointed to act as administrator of the estate of the deceased member. This involves employing the services of a lawyer who will make the relevant petitions to court to get the LA. The whole process takes 8 to 12 months, or longer if more than one person decides to obtain the LA).
-Grant of Probate (Probate) If the member had made a will, the member's family will have to produce what is known as Probate and submit this to the EPF. (The Probate is an authorisation by the court to the executor named in the will to administer the distribution of the estate of the deceased member).
b) Distribution Order If the money in question does not exceed RM 600,000 (and there is no land involved), the family of the deceased can then approach the Public Trustee (Amanah Raya)! to obtain a Distribution Order.
c) Consequence of failing to update nomination If the member does not update his nomination, whoever the EPF contributor has named as his or the beneficiary in the Form KWSP 4 (AHL) will receive the member's entire savings. Therefore, the spouse and family of the deceased will receive nothing if the contributor has named someone else, his friend, as his EPF beneficiary. This friend will inherit his savings even if the contributor had named his spouse and children as beneficiaries to his property, including his EPF savings, in a will is made after the EPF nomination.
d) Muslim contributors, They are governed by the inheritance regulations under the Syariah Laws. The term "beneficiary" does not apply to the person nominated by a muslim. The nominee in effect only acts as an executor(wasi) of the contributor's savings. Upon the contributor 's death, this executor has a duty to distribute the deceased's property in accordance with Faraid (inheritance) Laws.

3. How does one make a nomination or update a previous one ? You can do it by completing the Form KWSP 4 (AHL) which can be obtained at the EPF offices. You have to fill in a new KWSP 4 with the name of the person you now want to inherit your EPF savings. The new form will automatically cancel your previous nomination...... The advantages of naming a beneficiary and keeping this nomination updated are enormous. It not only ensure that your savings will goto those who need it most, but also guarantees speedy payment to your loved ones in such a time of need. If all the documents are in order, your nominee will get your EPF savings in about a month.

4. Locations of EPF Offices * Menara Komtar, Paras 47, Penang * Wisma KUWASA, Ground Floor, Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur.* Bangunan Yayasan Selangor, near AMCOP Mall, Petaling Jaya* Wisma Peransang, Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan. * Wisma Emerald, Jalan Meru, Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan.* Bangunan EPF, Johor Bharu (center of the city, opposite Wisma Imigresen)

Maximize your handphone ? How ?

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELLPHONECOULD DO...

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

*1* * The Emergency Number worldwide for **Mobile** is 112 .*

If you find yourself out of coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search anyexisting network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. **Tryit out.

** *2* * Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does you car have remote keys?* This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the personat your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having todrive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car,you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). Editor's Note: *It works fine! We triedit out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!"

* *3* Subject: Hidden Battery power

Imagine your cell battery is very low , you areexpecting an important call and you don't have a charger. Nokiainstrument comes with a reserve battery. To activate, press the keys *3370# Yourcell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase inbattery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time. AND

*4* How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. when your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.