The topic of responsible investment is an important challenge to pension funds. This challenge doesn’t only apply to individual schemes, but is also seen as a collective one. That’s why the Dutch Association of Industry-wide Pension Funds (VB), the Dutch Association of Company Pension Funds (OPF) and the Union of Occupational Pension Funds (UvB) have decided to act jointly on this dossier.

The Dutch system of pensions is under a lot of pressure. Pension participants now more and more face risks that accompany pension financing. However, many participants are not aware of those risks. Often, they have too optimistic expectations regarding their pension, and their knowledge and involvement is low. As a result, the customer faces a pension expectation gap.

Far-reaching changes in the regulation of financial markets and the organization of public pensions in the 1980s and 1990s transformed the landscape for retirement products in Sweden. First, banking and insurance were extensively deregulated in the 1980s, while the securities markets experienced major expansion.

The Dutch system of pensions is under a lot of pressure. Pension participants now more and more face risks that accompany pension financing. However, many participants are not aware of those risks. Often, they have too optimistic expectations regarding their pension, and their knowledge and involvement is low. As a result, the customer faces a pension expectation gap. In order to close the pension expectation
gap, two routes could be followed.

The main topic of this thesis is the effect of aging on pension systems. As the population of many Western- European countries ages, this topic has gained wide attention in the popular press, the policy debate and the academic literature.

Utviklingen i reell pensjoneringsalder for en 50-åring i kommunesektoren har økt etter 2002. Vi har undersøkt, som de første, om dette kan skyldes IA-avtalen og seniortiltakene. Våre funn presenteres i denne artikkelen.

In this paper we consider the influence of the demography on the dynamic equilibrium of an economy. More precisely, we focus on mandatory pensions, as in most Western countries except USA and Switzerland the role of ‘the third pension-pillar’, based on voluntary savings, is relatively minor.

Within the European Union there is a large variety of old age income support systems. Many member states have a mixture of state provisions, occupational pensions and individual pension savings. However, the relative importance of and the interaction between these three pension pillars differs significantly from one country to another.

Although average incomes in China have risen dramatically since the 1980s, concerns are increasing that the rural elderly have not benefited from growth to the same extent as younger people and the urban elderly. Concerns about welfare of the rural elderly combine spatial and demographic issues.

Since their introduction, the Riester pension scheme and the individual Riester products have become less beneficial to savers. Contracts concluded today will often lead to lower returns compared to contracts concluded in 2001. From a social perspective, meaning pension benefits in relation to individual saving contributions plus state subsidy, overall returns on all insurance-based products are very low.

A general increase has taken place in the role and weight of supplementary pensions in the provision of protection against old-age and other risks. In Europe a development in this direction is observed in countries with different pension systems and institutional backgrounds. In both ‘veterans’ and ‘newcomers’ (the former with a long tradition of supplementary schemes interacting with public basic pensions; the latter with more recent innovations consistent with the progressive curtailment of public pensions and the parallel increased role of second- and third-pillar funds) supplementary pension funds do in fact play an important role in protecting against old age. The changing balance between first, second and third pillars (with a shift from public forms of old-age protection to occupational and individual schemes) is paralleled by the European Union (EU) action in shaping pensions policy, with a particular focus on supplementary funds.