Transfers of policies between pension insurance companies

Pension insurance companies compete against each other to win the business of enterprises in the private sector. Employer enterprises and self-employed persons can take out earnings-related pension insurance from the pension insurance company of their choice. They can also transfer their earnings-related pension insurance from one company to another if they wish to do so. Competition between pension insurance companies and the transfer of policies from one company to another can be illustrated by so-called transfer statistics.

Grounds for statistics

It is possible for a policyholder, i.e. an employer or a self-employed person, to transfer their employment pension insurance from one company to another on four dates a year. The transfers take place on the first day of January, April, July and October. The policy is transferred to a new employment pension company three months after the transfer date. A prerequisite for the transfer of an earnings-related pension insurance policy is that the policy has been with the same company for at least one year before the transfer.

Based on the information we receive from pension insurance companies, we compile transfer statistics four times a year and publish them according to the following schedule:

• In April, we publish Transfers 1 statistics, which include insurance transfers reported in January–March.
• In July, we publish Transfers 2 statistics, which include insurance transfers reported in April–June.
• In October, we publish Transfers 3 statistics, which include insurance transfers reported in July–September.
• In January, we publish aggregate statistics for the previous calendar year, which describe the aggregate data for the entire previous year.

Change in statistics on policy transfers

In future, we will use a new statistical metric to express the volume of transfers between different pension insurance companies. Instead of the income from TyEL (employee) pensions levied using a basic rate, we will use the salary amount that is subject to TyEL pension insurance. We have made this change because from 2023 onwards, a new expense loading charge has been levied. The basic rate no longer includes an expense loading component. Thus, the premium income we previously reported using this metric no longer corresponds to the total premium income related to the transfer of policies between providers. From the policy transfers of 2024 onwards, our website will not report the premium income from insurance policies that are transferred between providers. Instead, it will report the amounts of relevant TyEL salaries and income for YEL (entrepreneur’s) pension insurance purposes.

Latest statistics: Transfers 3/2024

Total volume of transfers under the employees Pensions Act (TyEL): EUR 941,079,000
Number of TyEL policies transferred: 2,663
Total volume of transfers under the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (YEL): EUR 77,499,000
Number of policies transferred under the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (YEL): 3,164

For more information, please call

Jouni Seppänen (Elo), tel. +358 20 703 5710
Jorma Hokkanen (Ilmarinen), tel. +358 10 284 3424
Staffan Åberg (Veritas), tel. +358 50 560 0135
Mika Pitkälä (Varma), tel. +358 40 519 5147
Maija Schrall (Tela), tel. +358 40 839 6658

Previous statistics