3 retirement trends you need to know

I don’t know about you, but for me, even now in my 40s, financial provision for old age is somehow still a rather artificial construct. Of course, through my work I regularly come into contact with preventive care in courses and lectures and I notice time and time again that many people feel the same way as I do.

According to the SOTOMO fair play study, e.g Only about half (47%) of workers consider the contributions paid into the pension fund as an investment in their own pension capital and only left one fifth (18%) know the total of their own BVG pension capital. According to Moneyland, only 37% of 18-25 year olds say they have money invested in securities when it comes to Pillar 3a, which is closer to all of us.

So there is still much to do. I wondered: What will happen after the AHV reform and where and how should innovation in pension provision take place? I talked to several experts about this. Here’s what they had to say and some trends to watch out for as they could also affect your retirement.

Lorenz Arnet of the Asset Management Association Switzerland (AMAS) sees one of the great opportunities for the future in the flexibilization and increase of investments in securities in Pillar 3a. According to AMAS data, there is still room for improvement with the current investment rate of 38% for men and 30% for women in Pillar 3a.

“Who in the last 20 years If you had invested 50% of your pension assets in shares, your assets are now twice as large as if you had the entire assets in a savings account», Arnet calculates and adds: «Because women deposit less capital in Pillar 3a due to the current (rather) rigid structure of the payment options and they (subsequently) invest this capital even more conservatively than men, women will eventually become the same in the long term. term punished twice. It is the task of politicians to organize Pillar 3a in such a way that women are not disadvantaged.”

The Verein für Vorsorge Schweiz also sees room for improvement with pillar 3a, so the savings rate in 3a has barely changed and still averages around CHF 30,000 per pensioner (verein-pension.ch). This is where Motion can reinvigorate Eitlin and open up the possibility for everyone to pay more flexibly and according to their needs and capabilities, while also closing gaps from the past. If you want to calculate what this means for you yourself, you can calculate it with this calculator.

In addition to making Pillar 3a more flexible, technological progress also makes an important contribution to innovation in pension provision. For example, opening a Pillar 3a account 20 years ago was a tedious visit to the branch, but nowadays it can be done easily from home at the touch of a button. Technology has enabled a democratization of Pillar 3a away from a few providers to an explosive variety of apps and investment options with much more attractive terms than previously possible. In the last 5 years alone, more than 20 new Pillar 3a providers have entered the market.

Now, with artificial intelligence, the next innovation boost is just around the corner. Where is the journey going and how can this technology be used?

Nils Aggett, President of the Swiss Pension Association (VVS), says:

Large language models such as Chat GPT provide new ways of storing, structuring and presenting knowledge, and with it the ability to build specialized solutions, for example at customer service. Simply put: Where Chat GPT scans the entire internet and learns to answer questions in millions of variants, a smaller model can be filled with, for example, pension specialist knowledge, it quickly learns which questions need to be answered and how and can then provide relatively accurate, well-formulated answers. An example of a provider of such specialized AI chat solutions is Swiss-based company Enterprise Bot. Will we receive advice about our pension provision via an AI chat in the future?

Matthias Bryner, founder of the digital pension solution Finddependent, is more cautious:

Innovation does not only take place with pillar 3a, The pension funds are also focusing on innovation. The abolition of the coordination deduction, which is particularly disadvantageous for part-time workers and low-income earners, but also new models for charging fees are causing discussion: According to the report from 10 to 10 de Asset management fees for pension fund assets have doubled over the past 15 years. New approaches, away from a linear remuneration model based on the investment volume, towards a tiered model with a cap, could be potential improvements here.

Clearly, for a modern life of up to possibly 100, we need correspondingly flexible approaches. In addition to adapting framework conditions and improving solutions, this also requires awareness and greater understanding of the consequences of longevity, changing demographics and more hands-on education at all age levels – especially among young people – so that everyone understands which ways and means there are to tackle their own provision.

What do you think? What would you like to improve about your pension situation? 💸