The steadily increasing number of pensioners compared to the working population is putting pressure on the Swiss pension system. According to calculations by the federal government, this development is likely to put the pension system back into distress in just a few years, despite the decision to raise the retirement age for women - provided that no countermeasures are taken. In the ongoing debate about possible adjustments to pension schemes, the costs of asset management for pension funds are also regularly in the spotlight.
This fragmented approach occasionally leads to the view that a significant proportion of pension assets seep away into the system of asset managers. Critics argue that insured persons would benefit more if the parties involved were to exercise greater cost discipline or if occupational pension provision were to be restructured from the ground up.
However, this opinion is based on incomplete grounds, as it only scrutinises the cost side and thus ignores the total return achieved on the financial markets. An area that is commonly referred to as the "third contributor", as this - together with the contributions of employers and employees - forms an important source of income for occupational pensions. According to a recent study by AMAS, the industry organisation of the Swiss asset management industry, around 28% of the average pension fund assets of CHF 113,000 per capita in Switzerland - calculated over the past five years - come from the third contributor.
Additional costs pay off
In the current focus on the Pension Fund Study 2023, we therefore present the overall picture. With this overview, both those insured in the pension funds as well as employers and politicians can form a comprehensive opinion on the topic.
The most important findings are summarised below:
Figure 1: Top performance costs
(Average asset management costs in % of cost-transparent investments)