Pension
funds certainly are one of the most important novelties in the Italian
financial and social security fields of the past few years. Pension funds,
whose presence in other countries like the United States goes back to many
years. In Italy the "Casse di Previdenza" alreadt existed also before the
D.Lgs. 124/93, which trasformed them in Pension funds. Even if they are
very common in some sectors, yet they still interest a small percentage
of the total work force. As laid down by this decree law, they aim at providing
complementary to the pension issued by the public system, and involve employees,
both private and public, self-employed workers, freelances and co-operative
societies' working partners. The collective agreements and contracts are
the so-called “instituting sources”. Furthermore, in order to guarantee
the protection of the workers' interests, the provisions lay down that
the administration of the funds should be carried out by professionals.
In particular, the asset f inancial administrationmust be done through
agreement with companies focused on the asset management ( Insurance companies,
Bancks, Sim, or investment companies)
The same subjects in charge
of the Fund's assets administration can set up open Funds that can be freely
adhered to by subjects for whom no Fund was set up by an instituting source,
and by the employees of companies who decide, provided that the national
source allows it, to draw up a corporate agreement in which a pension plan
can be established by joining an open Fund.
The financing of Pension
Funds is made by a contribution either paid by the worker or by the company
with the drawing of the severance indemnity for the employees. The capitalised
contributions are (completely or partially) turned into a life annuity
that is normally paid by an Insurance Company; the part not converted
into the annuity, instead, will be settled as capital. The Pension Fund,
furthermore, can come to an agreement with an Insurance Company to offer
additional coverage, such as insurances against non self-sufficiency condition,
serious diseases in order to provide workers with a wider range of services.
The provisions also lay
down that the Pension Funds may offer self-employed workers fixed service
schemes thus aiming at ensuring a specific service linked to the income
or to the public pension, drawing up special agreements exclusively with
insurance companies. In the light of all this, the Fund's choice of its
insurance partner becomes a fundamental issue. The role played by
the insurance company must certainly have three key characteristics: management
skills, transparency and, finally, professionalism; in other words, the
characteristics that Toro Assicurazioni has been guaranteeing its clients
for more than 160 years and that led it to be the company that ranks first
in Italy in terms of financial stability.
To provide people who want
to learn more about Pension Funds with the same high quality standards
that it has always guaranteed its clients, Toro, Fiat Group's insurance
company, has put together a team of experts from the social security field
that allow interested communities to have a correct insight into the subject
by a custom-built model creation to economically assess two key alternatives:
setting up a Pension Fund or entering an existing one. With the first choice,
that is setting up a contract Fund, Toro can provide its clients with all
the help they need for each of its specific aspects: administration, financial
management, fixed services, management of annuities and, finally, additional
coverage.
The administration of a
Fund is certainly a special activity requiring its person in charge a constant
update concerning complex and continually evolving social security and
fiscal themes. Toro Assicurazioni offers a complete solution for the Pension
Funds' administration, able to meet the various needs with competitive
costs thanks to the economies of scale it can use. The key problem with
a fund's administration, however, consists in the resources' financial
management. It is in fact necessary to manage to optimise the yields and,
at the same time, to reduce risks to a minimum.
Clearly, to achieve such
performances, it is necessary to have a solid professionalism and a deep
knowledge of the financial tools that only the people who have been working
in this field for years can guarantee.
Toro Assicurazioni, that
has been dealing with the life field since 1928, offering both good yields
that are consolidated annually and minimum guaranteed yields, provides
its clients with solutions of pure financial or with management (which
guarantees the capital return, eventually with a minimun guarantee return
on investiment ) operating also on an international scale with state-of-the-art
instruments.
As previously mentioned,
self-employed workers and freelances have an extra opportunity that consists
in resorting to fixed service schemes that make it possible to have a service
established according to one's current income or to the level of the mandatory
pension assistance. The main characteristic of this special kind of scheme
consists in not paying a contribution to the Pension Fund and establishing
instead the service which will have to be supplied to the client as soon
as he reaches the pensionable age. The contributions, furthermore, are
calculated consequently.
Even in this case the law
lays down that the administration for fixed service is carried out with
an agreement drawn up with an insurance company For these specific needs,
Toro Assicurazioni can too allow its clients to benefit from the experience
in the life field that it got over many decades. A key element in setting
up this kind of funds is the processing of simulations in order to determine
a programme of payments to benefit from a life annuity (pension) at the
pensionable age equal to a pre-established percentage of the current income,
or covering, partly or completely, the difference between the estimated
pension and the last assumed income with the life annuity.
In such a delicate phase,
Toro Assicurazioni can support the Pension Fund both with its experience,
and with the “Social Security Check-Up”, a service that makes it possible
to determine according to the various professional categories the amount
of the public pension with respect to the last estimated income. If the
administration and the financial management account for two of the Pension
Funds' main aspects, just as important is the yields' management.
To tell the truth, such
aspect is so important that the law lays down that the pension funds may
distribute the yields only upon authorisation of the Committee of Inspection
and provided specific requirements established by it exist. Even the distribution
of the yields, however, forces the Pension Fund to come to an agreement
against the risk of survival beyond the average. Toro Assicurazioni offers
an efficient service of yields' distribution to all Pension Funds that
do not want or cannot supply this expensive activity.
Toro Assicurazioni offers
in fact the following advantages: to obtain the direct taking of the survival
risk beyond the average; to avoid the setting up of technical reserves
with a composition specifically determined by the Ministry of the Treasury;
to avoid the obligation to present the three-year technical budget including
the projections for a period not shorter than fifteen years; to offer its
clients the payment of the annuity instalments by credit on the checking
account or on the postal current account, and through the Toro Agencies
across the nation. Choosing Toro as a partner also makes it possible to
have a complete coverage from the typical risks whose needs are not met
by the public social security system.
The offer of a wide range
of insurance coverage, mandatory or otherwise, makes the adhesion to the
Pension Fund even more interesting and makes it become one single instrument
which allows people to “gain” serenity and security both for the pension
and for the working years.
Toro Assicurazioni can supply
a wide range of insurance coverage, that can be provided alongside any
type of Pension Fund's offer, through products devised and developed by
a team of experts who know the specific security requirements with respect
to the constantly evolving clients' needs.
In case the choice pertains
the setting up of an open instead of a “closed” Fund, Toro Assicurazioni
proposes the adhesion according to a collective contract to Toro Previdenza
and Toro Professional (for which the autorization iter is on going)
which certainly represent low-cost quick solutions.
The former is a fixed contribution
Pension Fund, open to employees and co-operative companies' working partners,
as well as to self-employed workers and freelances who intend to privilege
the stability of the contributions.
Toro Previdenza includes
more types of investment, some having a guaranteed result, and optional
additional insurance coverage. Toro Professional, on the other hand, was
born to meet the self-employed workers and freelances' specific needs.
This Fund ensures a pre-established
and guaranteed final service; the contributions' annual flow will be calculated
on it.
Even this Fund may include
interesting additional insurance coverage that can be inserted upon the
applicant's request.
When developing its proposals,
Toro set the goal of giving the client the certainty to choose the best
solution knowing to be able to rely on a solid, expert and trustworthy
partner. |
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Italian
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