The reform of the pension system carried out by the state in 2013 was recognized by a number of publications as “the reform of the year”. However, many Russians still do not understand the meaning of pension reforms.
The essence of the 2013 pension reform
Since 2015, new rules for the formation of a future pension are being introduced in Russia. They are relevant for all Russians who were born in 1967.
As earlier the pension was formed (until 2014): monthly the employer deducted 26% of the official “white” salary of the employee to the Pension Fund. Of these, 6% went to the formation of the funded part of the pension, 20% went to the insurance part. The latter, although it was recorded in the pension accounts of Russians, was entirely used for payments to current pensioners. Whereas the funded part was invested in various securities and assets in order to generate income. With her wise investment, the size of the future pension could be significantly increased.
For the whole of 2014, the state canceled the funded part of the pension, all payments will be directed to the insurance part. But the FIU will index them not below the inflation rate.
In 2014, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation should conduct a financial audit of NPFs, as well as their licensing and corporatization, so the funded part of the pension will not be received by them at least until 2015.
During 2014-2015. Russians must decide whether they reserve the right to form the funded part of their pension in the amount of 6% or refuse it and transfer all funds to the insurance part. In the first case, citizens need to choose a management company that will invest money. It can be a state-owned VEB or a private NPF.
In the second option, the funded part of the pension is reset to zero, but the state undertakes to index the insurance part to the inflation rate. This model is also supported by the absence of market risks for pension savings.
Which option will be more profitable in the future is difficult to say unequivocally. But now statistics show that the profitability of leading private pension funds is several times ahead of the accumulated inflation rate, as well as VEB's indicators.
In 2013, VEB showed a yield of 6.71%, which was almost completely offset by inflation.
That is why more than 8 million people in the period until the end of 2013 transferred their savings in favor of NPFs. In total, about 27 million people are in the funded system today, this is 36% of all Russians who were affected by the reform (75 million people).
Who considers the FIU to be silent
All citizens who have never applied for the choice of a management company or NPF, as well as those who have made a conscious choice in favor of abandoning the funded part of their pension, are called "silent" in the Pension Fund. In total, they include 48 million people.
Thus, among the "silent" one can single out those who deliberately made such a choice (such, according to expert data, a minority), as well as those who have not yet understood the essence of the reform or do not know about changes in legislation. Now all the savings of the "silent" are in the investment portfolio of VEB, where they will remain if the citizen does not decide to transfer them to the NPF.
If in the future the "taciturn" decides to stay in the funded system, he needs to submit an application to the Pension Fund with an indication of the 6% funded rate. And also decide on a management company or NPF. The choice can be made once during 2013-2015.
