AIG Life drops optional pension fund plans

AIG Life, the second largest life insurance company in Romania, has decided not to enter the optional private pension fund market after all, considering it insufficiently attractive at present. Two months ago the company announced that it would invest 10 million euros in a pension company that would enter the compulsory and optional private pensions markets. “We have analysed the situation and we have decided not to get involved. We think private companies will not be interested in offering private pensions to their employees under the current laws. If the 200-euro contribution is deductible for the employer, it is calculated as a taxable income for the employee, so there is no real advantage from a fiscal point of view. On the other hand, employees could contribute to such a fund of their own accord, but I don’t see employers going through the trouble of handling the transfer of these contributions,” said Mihai Coca-Cosma, chief operation officer at AIG Life.