Date: 02/2019

On the 5th of February 2019; the first common (pension) communication conference organized by the associations EAPSPI, ESIP and the FindyourPension initiative took place at the University of Leuven. Representatives from various pension institutions and other stakeholders, as well as researchers, got together in order to discuss pension communication from a cross-border and cross-pillar perspective. During the conference an interesting exchange took place between members of EAPSPI, which represents pension institutions for public sector employees, of the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP), which among others represents first pillar organizations and the FindyourPension Initiative which is on its way towards a European Tracking Service on Pensions. The discussions provided useful and interesting insights into the different scopes and best practices of the institutions regarding (key) pension information and communication for individuals.
 

Regarding pension information some requirements do exist, including those at EU level. The IORP II directive has laid down a set of regulations regarding information obligations in the field of occupational pension. It also promotes the exchange of best practices between pension institutions and other competent authorities in order to draw up clear and comprehensive information containing key relevant information. At the same time, the newly adopted Single Digital Gateway will require to make online information, procedures and assistance services accessible for citizens in cross-border situations. In addition, the recently started ETS project aims at setting up a cross-border and cross-pillar tracking service on pensions for cross-border and other mobile workers in Europe.

Beyond these new developments and requirements, all pension institutions seek and are committed to offer pension information in a digital and modern way and to facilitate the understanding of pension information, especially to younger people. This is an international trend. During his introductive lecture, Professor Stevens highlighted many reasons why information onn pensions is important: how could we jointly protect the individual more against financial risks and empower trust into his/her different pension schemes? Interesting methods and solutions to raise awareness were offered during the morning session: special educational activities in Polish high schools and universities, Dutch and international studies on special choice architecture and nudging, methods like using source icons and introducing layered information on the FindyourPension website, among others.

Further best practices of major interest were provided by the examples in the workshops during the afternoon session. One was dedicated to personal space and log-in (with best practice examples from INPS Italy, KPA Sweden and PFZW from the Netherlands). The other one was dedicated to the use of social media (with best practice examples of ETK from Finland, ERAFP from France and INPS from Italy).

At the end of the conference a final panel discussion took place. Here representatives of the different pillars debated on how we could define key relevant features of a future European Tracking Service, in the context of the current project and discussed a possible step-by-step approach whilst leaving the detailed information to the local tracking services.

The participants concluded and agreed to continue fostering a fruitful cooperation between EAPSPI, ESIP and FindyourPension/ETS. The importance to exchange best practices among pension institutions, as well as the conclusions drawn from different projects were highlighted. All participants were invited to contribute to the FindyourPension project and to join the inaugural meeting of the European Tracking Service to be held in September 2019.

Once again we would like to thank all the speakers and participants for joining us and for making this day unique and legendary!

Here you will find the respective presentations of the speakers.