Austrian Pension System: Strong Opportunities for Fund Raising

Knowledge for getting the most from advinda Premium’s goCH&A Pension & Insurance Investor Intelligence Package.

Population (2016): 8.5 million

Pension system design

The Austrian pension system is formed as follows:

  • public sector pillar dominates the Austrian pensions system
  • occupational pensions
  • private pensions remaining comparatively small and mostly provided by individual insurance products

Public pensions/state pension system

  • mandatory pay-as-you go scheme for all working people (incl. freelancers, self-employers, home workers)
  • individual benefits are calculated by using a person’s time of insurance contributions (at least 180 months) and retirement age
  • benefits can amount to as much as 80% of an individual’s average lifetime earnings, if contributions have been made for at least 45 years (subject to a predefined cap)

Legal retirement age: 60 (women) and 65 (men) for people born until year 1954; for birth cohorts from 1955 for women gradually raised to 65 between 2024 and 2033.

Voluntary occupational pensions

Supplementary employee pension (in case of retirement, invalidity, death or occupational disability) can be provided by employers with of one of the following four types:

  • Pension funds (“Pensionskassenzusagen”): pension fund assesses contributions and pays to the employee a grant to his/her pension; two variations: guarantee of performance and guarantee of contribution
  • Occupational collective insurance (“Betriebliche Kollektivversicherung”): for groups of employees, in form of life insurances, employer pays rates for his employees as a group
  • Life insurances (“Lebensversicherungen”): employer pays rates into a life insurance in favor of an employee
  • Direct insurance (“direkte Leistungszusagen”): employer pays directly and immediately a pre-defined benefit

Private pension

Private pension investments equivalent to: 5.8% of GDP (2015)

Private pension assets 2013: $ 25,993.7 million USD (all forms of private investment with a value associated to a pension plan over which ownership rights are enforced by institutional units, individually or collectively. This indicator is measured in millions of USD; source: OECD)

Pension funds’ assets 2015: $ 22,393.3 million USD (assets bought with the contributions to a pension plan for the exclusive purpose of financing pension plan benefits. The pension fund is a pool of assets forming an independent legal entity. This indicator is measured in millions of USD; source: OECD)

Net pension replacement rate 2014: 91.6% (individual net pension entitlement divided by net pre-retirement earnings; measures how effectively a pension system provides a retirement income to replace earnings. This indicator is measured in percentage of pre-retirement earnings by gender; source: OECD)

Sources:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – http://www.oecd.org

Austrian Social Ministry – www.sozialministerium.at