Martin Eling, director of the Institute of Insurance Economics and professor in insurance management at the University of St Gallen, receives a letter from his pension fund every year.

The document describes his situation at retirement age. “The fact that I receive a letter by regular mail once a year is not what I expect in terms of digitisation in 2020,” he says.

“There is still little digitisation in the Swiss pension fund sector compared to other sectors”. Eling and his colleague at the University of St. Gallen, Christoph Jaenicke, have conducted a study on the new labour market and its consequences on the pension system.

The study, Eling says, is a message to politics to act on the digital transformation of the pension system. Switzerland has a decentralised structure with about 1,500 pension funds, many small, lacking potential to put in place digital architectures.

The solution, according the study, is to build a portal whereby insured members can find relevant information on pensions across the different pillars of the system.

“I don’t believe anyone in Switzerland knows what to expect for their pension when they retire. Nobody has a clear view,” Eling says. His portal would give a transparent view on pension provision by comparing income, family situation and other benchmarks to give members a better idea of what they might expect when they retire.

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