Danica Pension has formed a partnership with unemployment insurance fund Ase and Pension for Selvstændige – the Danish pension fund for the self-employed – to offer a pensions and insurance package to Ase’s 60,000 self-employed members.
The pact, which takes effect tomorrow, is part of Danica Pension’s strategy to boost its business among people who work for themselves – a section of the labour market where the Danske Bank subsidiary said only two-thirds of people currently have private pension provision.
Søren Lockwood, chief commercial officer at Danica Pension, said: “Too few self-employed people have sufficient pension savings and far too few are insured against loss of earning capacity, and so we are really happy that through the new partnership we can now reach out to 60,000 self-employed people.”
Under the new agreement, pensions are to be provided by Pension for Selvstændige, which is managed by Danica Pension.
Ase has about 150,000 members, of which about 60,000 are self-employed, and Pension for Selvstændige currently has 36,000 members, who form part of Danica Pension’s customer base.
Lars Kvistskov Larsen, chief executive officer of Pension for Selvstændige, said: “It’s fantastic that Danica and Pension for Selvstændige have such a strong market position that we can bring these players into our partnership.”
Pension for Selvstændige has made a series of announcements over the last few months about new marketing agreements with brokers and other businesses in a bid to increase its membership.
A spokesman for Danica Pension told IPE the firm had a goal of increasing the number of self-employed customers it had by 10% a year.
At the moment, Danica Pension has DKK28bn of pension savings under management on behalf of self-employed people, all of which is related to Pension for Selvstændige, he said.
Danica Pension had total group assets of DKK672bn at the end of June 2020.
The spokesman said time would tell how many new customers the Ase partnership yielded for Danica Pension and Pension for Selvstændige.
In its announcement of the new marketing deal, Danica Pension cited a poll conducted on its behalf by YouGov into self-employment and financial security, saying that 32% of self-employed Danes did not save up for a pension.
This was either because they did not prioritise pension saving, could not afford it or because they thought their company was worth enough for them to live on the sale proceeds.
However, the survey – which questioned 502 self-employed people – also found that 30% of respondents felt insecure about their own pension savings, Danica Pension said.
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