IPD has great focus on creating openness and transparency in the Danish insurance and pension industry. Through more than a decade, we have introduced a number of initiatives that have given Danish consumers full openness and transparency about for instance conditions, costs and rates of return.
The online consumer tools introduced by IPD are among the best in the world and include:
Four new consumer initiatives
Recently IPD has introduced four new consumer initiatives in order to ensure better information and risk management for pension savings.
The aim is to enable consumers to better be able to see the risk associated with their pension savings and compare this risk to different pension products across the different pension companies.
It is the responsibility of the pension companies to show the consumer information on their webpages and in the pension projections they provide their customers. The risk indicators must also be available at the website www.faktaompension.dk, where it is possible to compare the pension products from the different pension companies.
When Danes save for their retirement, this is increasingly through unguaranteed products rather than products with guarantees. This has been a natural development in order to be able to give the customers the best rate of return in an investment environment where the interest rate is very low. However, it also means that the customer carries a greater risk that the rate of return will be lower and hence that the total pension saving will be lower.
The pension companies have developed new products without guarantees to be able to give the customers the best possible pensions. Without guarantees it is possible to take on greater investment risks and thereby reach a higher return to the customers.
It is important that customers realise the risks involved. They will one day live on the pension savings. It is therefore important that there is clarity about the risks involved, so that customers can make the right decisions.
IPD has created rules for the industry on how they shall inform customers about the risks involved in their pension savings.