Employee Choice Arrangement FAQ

The Employee Choice Arrangement has come into operation on November 1, 2012.

Since Employee Choice Arrangement has come into effect, you have the option of opening a Personal Account with your existing trustee or another trustee of your own choice, and transfer to it the accrued benefits derived from the employee mandatory contributions made during your current employment. You can also elect to transfer the former employment asset from your contribution account to a contribution account or a personal account anytime in one lump sum. Please be reminded that if you are satisfied with the trustee and scheme chosen by your employer, you do not have to make any transfer.

A Personal Account is used to retain your accrued benefits from your previous employment, and/or the accrued benefits derived from your employee mandatory contributions relating to your current employment.

Yes. With the commencement of Employee Choice Arrangement, you are free to choose any MPF trustee and transfer the accrued benefits derived from your employee mandatory contributions made during your current employment into a Personal Account held with your chosen scheme. You can also elect to transfer the former employment asset from your contribution account to a contribution account or a personal account anytime in one lump sum. Please be reminded that if you are satisfied with the trustee and scheme chosen by your employer, you do not have to make any transfer.

You can transfer the MPF accrued benefits derived from the employee mandatory contributions relating to your current employment once per calendar year. In addition, the MPF accrued benefits derived from your former employment in your contribution account is transferable to your Personal Account or contribution account anytime in one lump sum.

Calendar year means the period from January 1 to December 31 in any given year.

You can transfer the accrued benefits derived from your employee mandatory contributions from current employment into a Personal Account held with a scheme of your choice once per calendar year, while you may transfer the accrued benefits from your Personal Account to another scheme of your choice at any time.

No. Other than the necessary transaction cost(s), there will be no additional fees or service charges. Nevertheless, you are reminded to note the possibility of investment gain/loss that may result from the transfer of your accrued benefits.

No. Under Employee Choice Arrangement, all transfer decisions are made by the employee. Therefore, you only need to make a direct request with your chosen MPF trustee and do not need to inform your employer before you transfer your accrued benefits.

It may take 2-8 weeks to complete a transfer, depending on the nature of transfer and whether complete information is furnished.

Once you have selected an MPF scheme, you can transfer your MPF accrued benefits to your chosen trustee. If you do not have an MPF account in the new scheme, you should enrol under the MPF scheme and submit the relevant transfer election form to the new trustee.

If you have any questions about transferring your MPF accrued benefits to Manulife, you may either contact your MPF intermediary or call our customer hotline on 2108 1388.

You need to consider the quality and scope of service, the number of constituent funds offered and the service fees or other conditions that may be attached. Also, you may need to consider the service offered by intermediaries, administration support, account management as well as the trustee's reputation, financial strength and experience in managing retirement plans. You will need to assess whether the trustee can help you achieve your retirement goals.

Yes. But having more than one Personal Account may make managing them time consuming and lead to scattered assets. You may consolidate all your MPF accrued benefits into a single Personal Account for easier management of your MPF asset.

For details of fees and charges of Manulife's MPF constituent funds, please click here.

Download our latest MPF constituent fund performance by clicking here.

No. Employee Choice Arrangement does not affect the employer contribution portion; accrued benefits derived from mandatory contributions made by the employer are non-transferable and must be kept in the original scheme before cessation of employment.

No. Employers only need to make contributions to the original scheme for the employees but not their Personal Accounts.

No. The calculation and payment of severance payments and long-service payments will not be affected in any way.

No, but employers are encouraged to help their employees make informed decisions by sharing information from MPF schemes/trustees.

No. Employee Choice Arrangement does not have any impact on self-employed persons. They can still enrol themselves in an MPF trustee and scheme of their own choice. The contribution arrangements or procedures for transferring their MPF accrued benefits remain unchanged. Their rights and obligations under the MPF System also stay the same.