SWEDEN - AMF Pension now manages over one-quarter of young Swedish white-collar worker pension accounts, following the opening of the ITP to a wider base of pension providers.

According to Collectum, the online service responsible for pooling the money for white collar workers and administering the selection process, 15,000 people between the ages of 25 and 28, or one-third of young workers, had actively chosen to decide whether to invest their money as a guaranteed insurance account, or mix some of that by investing in unit-linked insurance funds by the middle of November.

At least 71% of assets are placed in ‘fondsförsäkring' or ‘insurance funds' while 29% selected to place their money with ‘traditionell försäkring' or traditional insurance funds.

Further breakdown of the take-up also reveals AMF Pension has so far picked up most of the business, taking 28% share of accounts, while Alecta - previously responsible for managing all ITP pension assets - has 25%, Länsförsäkringar Liv manages 14%, Swedbank follows with an 11% share, then SEB Trygg won 7%, compared with 6%, 5% and 4% respectively for Skandia, Moderna and Nordea Liv & Pension.

Under the rules of the new regime - which saw the scheme from defined benefit to defined contribution in July 2007 -  35,000 workers born since 1978 had to decide, by November 1, whether to put 100% of their contributions to the occupational pension scheme into guaranteed, or traditional, insurance products, or whether to split it so up to 50% is placed in unit-linked insurance funds.

Assets default to an insurance product offered by Alecta if no choice is made by the scheme member.

Additional research conducted by Collectum - which has had some technical problems in allowing people to choose which funds they invest in - reveals 9 out of 10 people questioned believe it is good to have such freedom of choice in their investment options.

Collectum's ceo Anders Moberg said he believes the one-third who have chosen to select their own funds have shown "significant commitment" to their own pensions, compared with just 7% of people making active choices through the Pension Premium Authority in 2006

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Julie Henderson on + 44 (0)20 7261 4602 or email julie.henderson@ipe.com

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