The aim of the article is to assess the level of pension security and retirement readiness of young adults (under 30) in Poland. The forms of supplementary pension security used by young adults were analysed, and the level of their participation in supplementary pension plans was examined. Following the introduction, the first section presents the architecture of the old-age pension system in Poland. The second section focuses on young people’s participation level in supplementary pension plans and their savings goals. The next section presents the results of the research on the financial goals and adequacy of respondents’ retirement planning based on OECD/INFE survey data. The last part discusses and concludes the results of the study. The survey found that young adults are not taking enough action to reduce the expected retirement gap and are more likely to set financial goals and be more optimistic about their retirement planning than older adults. They are more likely to rely on their own savings and supplementary retirement security, which, however, is not supported by data on the level of participation in supplementary retirement plans. Only one in five young adults intends to continue working past retirement age.
Research background: The role of supplementary pension systems in providing adequate income in old-age is increasing significantly. They are frequently analysed, but rather in terms of architecture, product forms, assets under management or tax incentives than in terms of their efficiency, costliness or readability for individuals. Purpose of the article: The first aim of this paper is to evaluate individual retirement products in Poland regarding their linguistic readability and transparency, investment efficiency and costliness. Moreover, we examine whether there is any correlation between the analyzed characteristics of contracts that would suggest an intentional strategy by financial institutions to hide low efficiency and high costs. The second aim of the article is to assess which individual retirement products are similar to each other and which are significantly different. The research covers two types of individual retirement products (IKE and IKZE) offered at the beginning of 2017. Methods: We used the ?Jasnopis? linguistic analysis tool to assess the difficulty level of the language used in the contracts and we conducted desk-research to analyse their transparency. We indicated the costliness and efficiency of the products by calculating the 5-year cost ratios and real average 5-year rates of return. To examine the relations between the characteristics of pension contracts, we used the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and then verified its significance with a non-parametric test. Moreover, to identify groups of products that are similar to or different from each other, Ward's method was used. The study includes nearly 90% of all individual retirement products offered in Poland. Findings & value added: For both types of retirement products studied (IKE and IKZE), we found that the more readable a contract is, the higher its rate of return is and the higher the costs charged are. Moreover, the more readable a contract is, the more transparent it is. The findings of the study provide financial institutions, the supervisor and creators of social policy with information on market imperfections and recommendations how to improve the individual retirement products offered on the market. Our research makes a unique contribution to the multidimensional research of supplementary pension systems. It also develops the understanding of how to successfully use linguistic tools in complex analyses of financial services. The results of the hierarchical cluster analysis proved that both IKE and IKZE products differ substantially and their features generally do not depend on the type of the financial provider.
Wydłużające się średnie trwanie życia wymaga odpowiedniego przygotowania na okres starości, w tym zgromadzenia „kapitału” emerytalnego w celu utrzymania przyzwoitego standardu życia. W niefinansowym systemie emerytalnym o zdefiniowanej składce (NDC) oznacza to dłuższą pracę lub większe oszczędności (lub jedno i drugie), w przeciwnym razie prowadzi to do ubóstwa na starość. W artykule, na podstawie reprezentatywnej próby, rozróżniono strategie podejmowane przez pracujących Polaków w celu przeciwdziałania ubóstwu na starość (pracochłonne, kapitałochłonne, mieszane) jako przeciwieństwo bierności, wynikającej z postawy „jazdy na gapę” lub krótkowzroczności. Bierność dotyczy prawie połowy badanej populacji (przy czym krótkowzroczność jest prawie dwukrotnie częstsza niż postawa „gapowicza”), w szczególności członków gospodarstw domowych o niskich dochodach, rolników i osób o niższym wykształceniu. Za pomocą wielomianowej regresji logistycznej zidentyfikowano determinanty każdej kategorii. Wyższy dochód jest predyktorem wyboru strategii mieszanej lub kapitałochłonnej, podczas gdy myślenie o przyszłości wiąże się z wyborem strategii mieszanej. „Jazda na gapę” występuje częściej wśród uczestników pracowniczych systemów emerytalnych i osób o indywidualistycznym nastawieniu. Ponadto krótkowzroczność wiąże się z niskim poziomem wiedzy finansowej. Wyniki te sugerują, że obecna polityka nie będzie skutecznie wspierała utrzymania odpowiedniego standardu życia na emeryturze, prowadząc do rosnących dysproporcji. Alternatywnie, starzejący się wyborcy zmuszą polityków do zapewnienia transferów, stwarzając ryzyko niezrównoważonych budżetów.
EN
Increasing life expectancy requires the accumulation of pension wealth to maintain a decent old-age living standard. Under a nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) pension system, it means working longer or saving more (or both) – otherwise leading to old-age poverty. In this paper, based on the representative sample, we distinguish strategies Polish working individuals undertake to counteract old-age poverty (labour-intensive, capital-intensive, mixed) as a contrast to inactivity driven by free-riding or myopia. Inactivity applies to almost half of the examined population (with myopia being almost twice as common as free-riding), particularly low-income household members, farmers, and low educated. With multinomial logistic regression, we identify the determinants of each category. Higher income is predictive of choosing a mixed or capital-intensive strategy while thinking about the future is associated with choosing mixed strategies. Free riding occurs more often among occupational pension scheme participants and people with individualistic attitudes. In addition, myopia is predicted by low financial literacy. These results suggest that the current policy will not efficiently maintain adequate kiving standards, leading to increasing disparities. Alternatively, ageing voters will force politicians to provide subsidies, posing a risk of unsustainable budgets.
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