Approved Minimum Retirement Fund / Approved Retirement Fund

An Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) is a personal investment account into which certain individuals can, in certain circumstances, invest the proceeds of their pension fund on retirement. With an ARF you manage and control your own retirement fund and can invest it in a wide range of different investment funds. The ARF will provide you with your pension income and you are free to withdraw your money at any time.

What restrictions apply to the investment?

In order to take out an Approved Retirement Fund you must have a guaranteed annual income of €12,700 per year (from other sources than your ARF investment). If you don’t, you must invest €63,500 of your pension fund into an Approved Minimum Retirement Fund until you reach age 75. Once you have put this money in an AMRF you can put any remainder into an ARF.

What are the main risks involved with an ARF?

The main risk involved with ARF’s is that the investor through taking regular withdrawals or due to poor investment returns the fund could be exhausted during the individuals lifetime and leave the individual with no source of income for the remainder of retirement.

What happens in the event of the investor’s death?

One of the main attractions of investing retirement funds in an ARF is the ability to leave any balance of the ARF account on death to next of kin.