In many countries, the demographic challenge faced by public pension systems has motivated the state to develop and promote in top of social security programs, funded schemes based on compulsory or voluntary affiliation. In order to facilitate a maximum coverage of people, a new concept has successfully emerged: the auto enrollment. In this technique, employers have to enroll employees automatically into a workplace pension scheme with personal and employers contributions but the employees can then choose to leave (opt out).
In this seminar, we will explain the basic principles of Behavioral Economics and their application to retirement saving. The technique of auto enrollment and auto escalation will be presented with examples from UK, US, Ireland and Poland. We will give figures showing the success of these initiatives.
A comparison will be done with the recent Belgian new law on free complementary pension for workers (PLCS /VAPW).