25 April 2013

Commission launches consultation of third pillar retirement products (individual pension plans)

Pension funds are a very important and fundamental choice in the life of a consumer. Currently there are no specific EU rules for such products which may take on various legal forms ranging from "life insurances" to "investment products". This results in legal fragmentation which does not allow the consumer to be protected in a consistent way in all EU countries. The results of the consultation will be taken into account for the preparation of possible future initiatives in this field.

Purpose and scope

• Identify specific problems encountered by consumers in the area of third pillar retirement products (personal pension schemes).
• Steer the debate towards identifying optimal ways of addressing some of the specificities in this field.
• Use the collected information to develop a genuine, consumer-friendly Single Market for personal pension schemes.

The consultation is open to all stakeholders and will be available in all EU languages. It will run for 12 weeks until 19 July, 2013.

Consultation

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