Job-hopped a few times? Your MPF preserved accounts need attention

This article is a rewrite of a report from February 2012.

More than a decade after the MPF’s launch, many Hongkongers have changed jobs several times — and quietly accumulated a trail of preserved accounts. With assets scattered across providers, switching funds means filing separate instructions with each one, and a mismatched signature can send the paperwork back. This is your hard-earned money; it deserves attention.

Why do preserved accounts keep piling up?

MPF contribution accounts are registered under the employer’s name (casual employees and the self-employed excepted), so each job change sees your old assets swept from the employer’s contribution account into a preserved account in your name three months after you leave. The more often you switch jobs, the more accounts you collect — and since choosing the provider is the employer’s call, not yours, those accounts end up scattered across trustees, with the citywide total quietly reaching into the millions.

How messy does it get?

Say you hold three preserved accounts with three providers: to switch your investment mix you must file three change instructions with three providers, whose back-office arrangements differ — instructions submitted the same day may not execute the same day. Then there are the forms to complete and sign one by one, with signatures that must match each provider’s records. Even with an intermediary helping, you have to check nothing is missed.

Don’t lose touch with your accounts

Frequent job-switchers often hold small balances in each account and let them drift — especially after moving house without updating providers, when statements go astray and the account effectively goes dark. Remember: at retirement, withdrawal instructions go to the provider, not the MPFA, so you must know exactly which providers hold your accounts.

If you’re unsure whether any account has slipped through the cracks, visit an MPFA district office in person or mail/fax an enquiry form, and the MPFA’s central system can retrieve the preserved accounts registered under your HKID number.

Whatever the balance, it is your money. Learn how to manage it in the MPF education guides.