How to increase pension savings with the help of NPF Sotsium

Concern for the safety and increase of pension savings has become a headache for the majority of Russians of working age. There is nothing surprising here: the state smoothly shifts the responsibility for a dignified old age onto the shoulders of citizens. To cope with this burden, you need to take care in advance of a “safety cushion”, from which you can live after the end of active work. And one of the options for this cushion is investing in non-state pension funds, for example, Sotsium, which is now actively attracting new clients.

Information about the fund

Current information about JSC NPF Sotsium can be found on leading information sites, for example here, or on the portal of the Bank of Russia. The main thing a potential investor needs to know is whether the organization is currently operating. If the company you are interested in is in the process of reorganization or liquidation, these resources will post the relevant data.

The following is currently known about the Socium Foundation:

• INN – 7714324003;
• OGRN – 1147799013559;
• authorized capital – 150 million rubles;
• NPF license 320/2 dated April 26, 2004;
• sole shareholder - PJSC Ingosstrakh;
• The head of the company is Shishkina Ekaterina Sergeevna.

Information regarding the organizational structure, available pension programs, the procedure for joining and leaving the fund is presented on the official website. The resource interface is user-friendly: it is intuitive and convenient even for inexperienced users.

In the upper right corner of the main page of the site there is a contact telephone number (8(800)775-72-35), where you can ask the duty operator all your questions. To view the list of branches and representative offices, follow the link.

Pension accumulation programs

A funded pension has the following advantages for individuals:

1. Accounting is carried out in rubles.
2. Citizens' savings are invested in various projects, which allows NPF clients to receive additional profit.
3. Since 2020, the Russian government has launched a state system of guaranteeing the rights of insured citizens, which allows Russians to remain confident in the safety of their contributions and an increase in the guaranteed amount by the amount of profit from investments every 5 years.
4. The pension is calculated by dividing the amount of available contributions by the expected period of payments, which is established when taking into account statistics.
5. Pension benefits may be inherited before benefits are awarded.

There is a pension calculator on the official website of NPF Sotsium. With its help, a citizen can calculate the amount of his future pension, indicating the necessary data.

Let's look at an example of what the payment amount will be under certain parameters:

1. Gender – male.
2. Age – 30 years.
3. Year of starting work – 2010.
4. Monthly salary – 30,000 rubles.
5. The current amount of pension contributions is RUB 477,000.
6. Profitability – 7 percent.

As a result, it turns out that the amount of monthly pension payments provided will be 14,760 rubles.

Corporate programs are available for legal entities. This is an effective personnel management tool with the following advantages:

1. Corporate NPO is a means of long-term motivation of the main categories of employees, allowing to reduce personnel turnover. The modified state pension system can guarantee a pension level of only 25 percent of average earnings.
2. Corporate NPO allows you to flexibly manage personnel and use a pension program that meets all the requirements of a particular organization.
3. By introducing corporate NPO , the company gains a reputation as an employer who cares about the social security of its employees.
4. Tax benefits are provided for employers and employees of companies.

To select a corporate program, the employer must determine:

1. The goals that are planned to be achieved with the help of the program.
2. Sources from which employee NGOs will be financed.
3. The conditions under which the company's employees are included in the NPO program.
4. Indicators that determine the size of NGO workers.
5. The period after which the employee becomes entitled to the contributions available in the fund.
6. Conditions under which workers are excluded from the NGO program.
7. The date on which the program is to take effect.

By becoming a client of Sotsium, an employer will be able to:

• increase the level of employee loyalty to the employer;
• reduce staff rotation levels to normal levels;
• motivate qualified specialists to continue working in the company.

Reliability rating

The history of the Sotsium pension fund began in 1994, when it was still called NPF GAZ. In 2002, to increase the potential of the NPF and consolidate resources, three more non-state funds were added to it. In 2014, in accordance with changed legal requirements, the organization was corporatized.

In 2020, the RAEX Rating company (“Expert RA”) assigned the updated NPF a ruAA- (stable) rating, which is still in effect. Clients of the fund can hope that it will work stably in the coming years and provide good growth in the pension savings of investors.

The reliability of the fund can be judged by other indicators:

• current assets of NPF – 23.8 billion rubles;
• liabilities as of June 30, 2019 – 74 million rubles;
• number of clients – 380 thousand people.

NPF ranks 10th in terms of the volume of pension savings and the number of insured persons, which indicates its stable position in the market.

Fund return

Any investor in a non-state pension fund is interested in increasing his savings: otherwise, why transfer money to it? However, today not all non-state pension funds provide clients with the desired level of profitability.

The non-state pension fund “Socium” is among the “average” in this indicator. Over three years, he increased clients' savings by 13%. This year the situation has improved a little, but 29th place in the ranking based on the results of 9 months of 2020 cannot be called successful. Over the past period, the yield was only 7.81%, which practically coincides with the result of the state NPF Vnesheconombank.

Confidence

The NPF reliability rating also plays an important role. For Socium, this indicator leaves much to be desired. Today, the level of trust (reliability) remains at A+. This component stands for “High level of reliability”. But it still does not suit the population.

The thing is that the reliability rating of the NPF, which inspires trust, is A++. It is organizations with such a trust that potential investors are looking at. Considering that Sotsium has a low rating among similar pension funds, the A+ reliability rating does not have the best effect on public interest in the company.

How to join

To become a fund contributor, you must enter into a pension service agreement with the fund. To do this you will need:

1. Contact the NPF in person or remotely: submit an online application through the website or request a call back.
2. Choose a suitable pension scheme with the help of a consultant or on your own.
3. Collect the necessary documents, the forms of which are available for download at this link.
4. Sign a pension service agreement with the NPF.

If you plan to transfer the funded part of your pension to NPF Sotsium, you must contact the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation with an application for the transfer of funds. Fund managers will organize a visit to the territorial office of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation at a time convenient for you.

NGO Rules

Non-state pension provision is a savings system within which the fund investor independently generates savings towards a future pension payment.

The features of this program are the following:

• The depositor can open a personal account and accumulate savings in his own name, as well as do this in favor of third parties (one or more).
• The investor must periodically deposit a certain amount of funds into his own pension account; the fund undertakes the obligation to accumulate, preserve and increase these funds through investment. Investment is understood as investing pension savings in securities, deposits and other financial instruments that allow the end investor to receive additional income.
• The payment of funds begins after the investor or participant (the third party to whom the payment is made) becomes eligible for pension. This could be the loss of a breadwinner, disability, or age.
• A non-state pension is entitled to a participant or contributor, regardless of what payments he receives from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and other government bodies.
• Within the framework of such a plan, the contributor of funds independently determines the frequency of receiving future pension payments, the period, as well as other conditions, including the procedure for contributions, their amounts and methods of transfer to an individual account.

The non-state pension accumulation program from NPF Sotsium has a lot of advantages. For example, the funds contributed by the investor can be inherited by his legal successors established by law. The exception is when the depositor or participant receives a lifetime pension, in which case the savings are not inherited.

Control over the activities of the fund is exercised by the Bank of Russia and other regulatory bodies, which guarantees strict compliance with legislative norms.

Termination of an agreement with NPF "Socium" is also quite simple, just write a statement, after a certain time the investor can receive the entire accumulated amount along with investment profit.

How to receive payments

Since July 2012, NPF Sotsium began accepting applications for lump-sum payment of pensions to citizens who have reached retirement age or received similar pension grounds. The following types of payments are made from savings:

• one-time;
• fixed-term pension;
• monthly (cumulative part);
• payment to heirs (successors).

NPF Socium considers applications for a one-time payment only if there are supporting documents:

• general passport;
• SNILS;

• a certificate from the Pension Fund confirming receipt of one of the types of pensions (if there are grounds provided for by law).

The application must indicate a contact telephone number for communication and prompt resolution of any issues that may arise. Documents can be submitted to the fund in person or sent by registered mail. In this case, they must be certified by a notary or consul (if the Russian is outside the country).

How to terminate a contract

The interaction between non-state pension funds and investors is not always successful. Sometimes clients who have not seen an increase in their pension savings become disillusioned with the fund and decide to transfer the funds to another non-state company. In this case, it is useful to remember that changing NPFs more often than once every five years entails a loss of investment income.

If the decision to terminate the contract has become irrevocable, you should proceed as follows:

• notify the Socium Foundation of your decision with a corresponding statement;
• inform the Pension Fund about the change of policyholder;
• provide NPF “Socium” with details for transferring pension savings to another policyholder.

Any questions that arise can be resolved by calling the hotline or stating your problem using the feedback form on the official website.

Distribution throughout Russia

"Socium" is a non-state pension fund that is well known in Russia. As already mentioned, the organization has many branches in the country. In almost every locality in Russia you can find a branch of “Socium”.

This allows us to think about the integrity of the organization. The thing is that NPF “Socium” receives positive reviews for its prevalence. There is no need to be afraid that we are talking about some small fraudulent company. But is this company really honest? Is it worth investing your money saved for old age here?

Customer Reviews

There is practically no mention on the Internet that the fund took any illegal actions to increase the number of investors or deceived its clients. Citizens write very reservedly about the work of NPF Sotsium. Customer reviews mainly concern the peculiarities of interaction with the company’s specialists, the speed of processing applications to join and leave the fund, and the low return on investment.

Based on the restrained comments of the authors, it becomes clear that the NPF operates within the legal framework and respects the interests of clients. Overall, it is suitable for cautious investors who expect long-term investment returns to grow.

Personal account of fund clients

A personal account will help clarify a number of questions, access to which is given to all registered users (this means signing an agreement on compulsory insurance at the proposed institution). By logging into the site, the client has access only to current information and the latest news, which allows him to always keep abreast of events from NPF Socium.

If any questions arise, all clients can use online consultation. Our staff will give you complete answers and help you quickly understand the functionality of the service. Profitability depends entirely on the person applying and the documents submitted confirming information about the factors described above.