
Pan-European Pensions & Tontines: Can Europe take a global pensions lead?
In a speech on 4 February 2021, Gabriel Bernardino, outgoing president of the European Insurance and Pensions Authority (EIOPA), stressed the need for an optional EU legal framework for a Pan-European Occupational Pension. In this respect, the Cross Border Benefit Alliance (CBBA-Europe) recently proposed the launch of a new pension institution, the so-called “PEOP”, which will share similar principles with the Pan-European Pension Product (“PEPP”). TontineTrust is currently licensing itself as one of the first PEPP providers in Europe. It is also implementing the first modern 'tontine' pensions, which adhere to the recommended model recently endorsed by the OECD in their "Future of Pensions" report. As the OECD report stated, tontines "enable higher retirement incomes and significantly mitigate risk for consumers as well as any governmental or corporate sponsors". As such, the introduction of the PEOP would further accelerate the adoption of this next generation of lifetime income pensions which are set to revolutionise the retirement benefits industry.