Portability 權益的可調動性

Relevant Employee Who Is under Current Employment 現職有關僱員

Start with the account types. A contribution account mainly receives employer and employee contributions for current employment, or contributions made during self-employment. A personal account mainly receives benefits transferred from former employment or self-employment, but can also receive current-employment benefits under the Employee Choice Arrangement. Accrued benefits comprise accumulated contributions and the related investment returns.

The Employee Choice Arrangement (ECA), introduced in November 2012, gives employees greater choice of trustees and schemes. Once each calendar year, employees may transfer all benefits derived from their current employee mandatory contributions to a personal account in another scheme of their choice, unless the governing rules allow more frequent transfers. A calendar year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Current employer mandatory contributions fall outside this transfer right, and both parties’ new contributions must continue to reach the employer-selected scheme on time.

Benefits derived from former employment or self-employment mandatory contributions held in the contribution account may be transferred in full to a personal account or another contribution account. Eligible sub-account balances may move together to one eligible account, or separately to different schemes and accounts on different dates; each selected sub-account balance must move in full. Transfers of voluntary contribution benefits depend on the individual scheme’s governing rules.

A tax deductible voluntary contribution (TVC) account is a separate account type for making TVC. Its transfer rules operate independently of ECA: members may transfer its entire accrued benefits to a TVC account in another MPF scheme at any time, but partial transfers are not allowed.

Relevant Employee Who Ceases Employment with His/Her Employer 有關僱員終止受僱

On changing employment, a master trust scheme member may move accrued benefits to the contribution account under the new employer’s scheme, choose a personal account in another scheme, or retain them in a personal account within the original master trust scheme. Instructions to transfer to the new employer’s scheme may be submitted to the eMPF Platform, which processes the transfer between schemes.

An employer-sponsored scheme member must transfer accrued benefits out of that scheme on changing employment. The destination may be the new employer’s MPF scheme or another MPF scheme the member is eligible to join. The option of retaining a personal account within the original master trust scheme should therefore not be applied generally to employer-sponsored schemes.

Industry schemes currently cover catering and construction. An employee changing jobs within the same industry may retain accrued benefits in the industry scheme if both employers participate in that same scheme. Alternatively, the employee may transfer them to a master trust scheme of their choice. Both the same-industry condition and participation in the same industry scheme matter.

Self-employed Person Becomes a Relevant Employee of an Employer 自僱人士成為有關僱員

A master trust scheme member who stops self-employment and becomes a relevant employee may keep the accrued benefits in the existing account within that master trust scheme. The change to employed status does not itself require the old benefits to move into the new employer’s scheme.

A member choosing to transfer may use another master trust scheme, an industry scheme they are eligible to join, or the MPF scheme in which the new employer participates. For examination purposes, distinguish permission to transfer to the new employer’s scheme from a requirement to do so.

Notes to Member to Make an Election to Transfer 成員選擇轉移權益須知

Members may exercise their transfer right or leave their benefits where they are. An assessment should compare the range and quality of trustee and scheme services, fees and charges, and the choice and suitability of constituent funds.

The decision should also reflect personal investment objectives, life stage and risk tolerance. Members holding guaranteed funds should check the qualifying conditions: transferring or switching funds may prevent those conditions being met and remove entitlement to the guaranteed return.

Transfers between schemes generally involve redeeming the original funds before reinvesting in the new scheme, leaving an interval when the money is not invested. A rising market during that interval can produce a sell-low, buy-high outcome. MPF funds use forward pricing: prices are determined using fund asset values after the relevant market closes, so members cannot specify dealing prices. [MPFA: Forward pricing](https://www.mpfa.org.hk/mpf-investment/principles-of-fund-investment/forward-pricing)

Before deciding, members should read the MPFA’s ECA transfer guide and investment education materials, together with trustees’ offering documents, fee tables, fund fact sheets and Key Scheme Information Documents. The MPF Fund Platform provides information for comparison, including fund expense ratios, fund risk indicators, on-going cost illustrations and fund performance.

Duties of the Trustee on Transfer of Accrued Benefits 受託人在轉移累算權益方面的責任

The original trustee is the transferor trustee; the new trustee is the transferee trustee. Generally, the transferor must take all practicable steps to ensure that the benefits are transferred within 30 days after the transferee notifies it of the member’s transfer election.

For a transfer requested by an employee whose employment has ceased, compare two deadlines: 30 days after that notification and 30 days after the last contribution day for the employment that has ceased. The later deadline applies. The calculation therefore cannot invariably start from the leaving date or the member’s first submission of a request.

Once the accrued benefits have been transferred, the member will receive a completion notification via the eMPF Platform.