ke stažení - Pojistný obzor

the fund pillar for savers when they reach
retirement age.
People now already pay about 2% of the average
wage under supplementary pension insurance
with state contribution 6 . And the amount
accumulated in pension funds totals about
CZK 170 billion: after 14 years of their existence,
with the support of employers, with tax
reliefs and the state support – in other words,
only 5 % of the GDP.
Do you think that today’s thirty-year-olds
will manage to secure themselves sufficiently
for old age, despite the procrastination
of the pension reform 7 Will this
generation not suffer due to lingering of
politicians Is there still a way to prevent
it
I think that if today’s thirty-year-olds, or my
contemporaries, do not secure themselves for
retirement age, they will have giant financial
problems when they retire. It is outrageous
that most politicians do not warn about the
problem, but, on the contrary, feed the nation
with illusions that the pension system is all
right and that no major intervention is necessary.
I am not saying this as a head of an insurance
house or a pension fund, but as a person
who is directly affected by this problem,
and also as a specialist who knows numerical
prognosis.
The age of Czech citizens at which they are
entitled to retire is constantly moving upwards.
What, in your opinion, is the ideal
retirement age that would allow people to
enjoy their retirement
In all advanced countries, the retirement age
increases as the population grows older. Those
who do not want to increase the retirement
age must either significantly raise taxes 8 , or,
on the contrary, decrease the pensions, there
is no other way. Of these options, gradual increasing
of the retirement age seems to be
the least problematic decision. From an individual’s
point of view it is important that the
retirement age does not increase faster than
the average life expectancy 9 . Then the time
spent in pension will not differ across generations.
From the point of view of ethics, is there
a certain age limit to the retirement age
that should not be exceeded
Fifty years ago, no demographer anticipated
that an average life expectancy for women at
the end of the millennium would be almost 80
years. Some of the demographers seriously
work with the hypothesis of a medical revolution,
thanks to which another spontaneous
increase in life expectancy will occur. If such
a scenario is fulfilled, then the retirement age
will also grow – to values that are hardly thinkable
for us today.
The relation between the age of recruitment in
the first job and the retirement age is also very
little considered. As time passes, the schooling
and training time before a young person
is hired in the first job is gradually extending.
Not to mention changes in lifestyle of the
young generation (to enjoy life after studies a
few years longer and to travel, and only then
search for a permanent job). Yet it is clear that
the later an individual begins to work, the later
Vladimír Bezděk (*1974)
has worked at AEGON since last year. At
the beginning of October 2007, he became
the CEO of AEGON Pojišťovna, a.s. and simultaneously
he executes the function of
the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors
of AEGON Penzijní fond, a.s.
He began his career in 1997 at the Czech
National Bank (CNB). In the more than nine
years of his employment at CNB he worked
in several sections, in various positions. He
engaged in fiscal policy analysis, first in the
Economics Institute and then also in the
Currencies Section.
Since 2001 he worked as an advisor of a
CNB Bank Board’s member [this means he
advised one particular person who was a
board member. Should it be “he worked as
an advisor to the CNB Bank’s Board]. In
autumn 2003, he changed to the Independent
Economic Research Department where
he coordinated the research of fiscal policy
and, at the same time, acted as one of the
CNB Bank Board’s advisors. From July 2004
1
pension reform – důchodová reforma
2
state pillar – státní pilíř
3
payg (“pay as you go”) pension system –
průběžný penzijní systém
4
Minister of Labour and Social Affairs –
ministr práce a sociálních věcí
5
pension fund – penzijní fond
6
supplementary pension insurance with
state contribution – penzijní přpojištění se
státním příspěvkem
he/she will be able to retire. Firstly, because
he/she will have to “finance” with his/her pension
insurance the pensions of the preceding
generation, and secondly, because he/she also
has to partially save for his/her own pension –
no matter whether mandatory, or voluntary.
Enough time is necessary for both.
Thank you for the interview, Mr. Bezděk.
to June 2005 he was temporarily released to
serve in the Czech Republic’s Government
Office and was appointed by the Czech Republic’s
Government as the coordinator for
the preparation of papers for the decision
on the pension reform. Having returned to
the CNB he resumed the position of fiscal
research coordinator and Bank Board’s advisor
and, in addition to these activities, since
October 2005 he also headed the Financial
Stability Department.
Vladimír Bezděk is a graduate of the University
of Economics in Prague and The
University of Manchester in Britain. He also
actively participates in discussions on the
pension reform in the form of lectures he
reads at conferences, seminars and colleges/universities,
and he also publishes
frequently on pension reform.
Vladimír Bezděk is married, with three children.
His hobbies include squash, reading
non-fiction and playing card games (for example
tarot and bridge).
Selected insurance terminology from the text
Vybraná pojistná terminologie z textu
7
procrastination of the reform – oddalování
reformy
8
to raise taxes – zvýšit daně
9
the average life expectancy – průměrná
délka života
Insurance Digest Pojistný obzor 3/2008 43