World Experience of Pension Guarantees in Voluntary Pension Plans

The article deals with the provision of pension guarantees in voluntary pension systems. The importance of guarantees is due to the increasing role of non-state pension systems in international practice. World experience shows that problems within the framework of voluntary pension schemes are largely related to the issue of trust in the pension system. Solving the latter is interrelated with the necessity of consideration of guarantees. The article analyzes the pension guarantees in the legislation of different countries in order to identify opportunities to use international experience in legal regulation for the development of the pension system in the Russian Federation. The paper describes the fiduciary standards in voluntary pension schemes in different countries, as well as the principles of the OECD in financial protection of pension plan participants, implemented in the national legislation of the countries. The issue of investment return guarantees is particularly important in the context of voluntary pension schemes with defined contributions. The analysis helps to identify that Russia needs an introduction of legal frameworks of guarantees regulation to increase the number of participants in the voluntary pension system. The guarantee in voluntary pension schemes will be critical if the automatic enrollment mechanism is introduced in the Russian Federation as part of the system of individual pension capital. In particular, an important point is the introduction of a system of guarantees for participants’ rights as a concept in the Russian private pension system, as well as the implementation of basic legal principles and characteristics of this system.