Report on Due Diligence when working with a counterparty dated 10/18/2020

Read more about the non-state pension fund

All future pensioners have the right to choose for themselves where their funds will be stored and accumulated: in a state or non-state pension fund.

If the decision is made in favor of a non-governmental organization, it has the right to manage this money and increase its amount, which has a positive effect on the amount of the monthly benefit when a citizen reaches retirement age. So what is NPF?

NPF is a non-profit company whose main function is the social security of investors and their pension insurance. Each such structure has a completely transparent cash flow system and any of its clients can familiarize themselves with the amount of their contributions either online through their personal account, or by personally visiting the office of the non-state pension fund with which the agreement has been concluded.

To exclude fraudulent activities on the part of such organizations, they are subject to regular annual inspections by the Russian Pension Fund, the Tax Service, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation and the Financial Markets Service.

When transferring his pension savings to any non-state fund, the investor can take advantage of additional services that are not available from the Pension Fund. Each organization has its own list of privileges, but they all provide a certain list of the same services that are mandatory for such funds.

Firstly, the account of a future pensioner cannot be blocked, even if there is a court decision to confiscate his property and/or seize the accounts.

Secondly, in the event of the death of the investor, all money located in the NPF department will be transferred to the persons specified in the will or to the closest relatives by right of inheritance.

Thirdly, you can increase the size of your savings by transferring additional funds. This procedure can be carried out personally or entrusted to your employer.

If for some reason a non-state pension fund is declared bankrupt, then all pension savings will be transferred to the Pension Fund, that is, they are not in danger.

Is it worth transferring your pension here?

Everyone makes their own decision about pension savings. NPF Surgutneftegaz shows good financial results and manages its own capital, but its profitability is low.

One out of two:

• the company conducts proper concealment of income;
• the manager’s actions led to losses (for example, purchasing shares without paying dividends and causing a loss of value).

I compare the profitability of the state Pension Fund and NPF Surgutneftegaz for 5-7 years - the Pension Fund is no worse. And I don’t like rumors about shady schemes around the Surgutneftegaz group, so I’m considering other options for retirement savings.

How does the NPF work?

Answering the question: what is a non-state pension fund, it must be said that each fund located on the territory of Russia has a strictly defined structure. Its supreme department of leadership is the council. It consists of all the founders and directors of the foundation.

In addition, the work of the company is necessarily controlled by a board of trustees, which includes official delegates of investors. They are the ones who protect the interests of future pensioners free of charge.

At the end of each year of activity, the NPF is obliged to submit all available reports for verification by independent experts. After which it is published on the official website of the organization along with the experts’ decision.

Please note that in addition to all the above checks, all NPFs are required to constantly undergo an actuarial assessment, which determines the viability of the organization and the ability of it to fulfill its obligations regarding pension insurance and the formation of future pensions for citizens.

Thanks to this, we can say that NPFs are organizations that are able to fully conduct their activities and provide investors with a high-quality range of services.

What does NPF do?

There are officially three types of activities that all non-state pension funds have the right to engage in:

1. non-state pension provision, which represents the receipt and accumulation of funds from future pensioners, as well as their payment in cases requiring this (reaching retirement age, termination of a contract, etc.);
2. NPFs provide compulsory pension insurance for depositors, which is regulated by an agreement concluded at the beginning of cooperation;
3. professional pension insurance, which means the implementation of specialized programs aimed at groups of people engaged in hazardous or harmful work activities.

How to choose a non-state pension fund

In order to most objectively choose a non-state fund that is most reliable and meets the requirements of the future pensioner, several factors must be taken into account.

First of all, it is worth finding out the year the fund was created. If it has been operating for more than 20 years, that is, it was founded before 1998, then you can trust it with your finances, since it already has experience working during a crisis and has successfully survived it. It is also necessary to familiarize yourself with the list of founders specified in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Practice shows that the greatest trust is in organizations founded by large companies (banks, etc.).

It is imperative to analyze the amount of income of a particular pension fund. This information is most often posted on the official website of NPFs, and can also be found in the reports of the Bank of Russia.

Please note that the information from the official website and from the Bank of Russia must match. If the NPF service provides unreliable (usually inflated) data about its profitability, then you should not trust it with funds.

Currently, there are several websites that compile ratings of the most popular non-state pension funds (ExpertRA, etc.). This information should also be taken into account. The better the NPF, the higher its rating.

In addition, you need to look through all available reviews and, if negative reviews about this organization predominate, then it is better not to consider it.

And the last, but less important, stage in making the decision to transfer your funded part of your pension to a pension fund is a careful study of the official website of the NPF.

You should familiarize yourself with the number of branches in the Russian Federation, in particular, whether there is a representative office in the city in which the investor lives. It is also necessary to evaluate the convenience of the services provided on the service: the efficiency of the technical support service and the availability of a personal account.

On the official website of a non-state pension fund, information about its reporting, licenses, and contact information should be publicly available.

Based on the results of the inspection, it was established:

The age of the organization is [number] years [or year, years]

Due to the short period of operation and insufficient amount of objective data about the counterparty, the level of risk is increased.

The counterparty has not provided tax reporting for more than a year.

The counterparty has a tax debt of more than 1,000 rubles, which was sent to the bailiff for collection.

The counterparty has a fine for tax violations.

The counterparty has tax arrears for the following types of taxes:

Based on the results of the Federal Tax Service's audit of the reliability of information about legal entities, information about the legal address of the counterparty was found unreliable as of October 18, 2020.

According to information from the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, there were/are claims against the counterparty to declare it bankrupt. You should pay utmost attention to this information and carefully analyze these arbitration cases.

There is information about the existence of procedures used in bankruptcy cases.

In the building located at the legal address of the legal entity, [number] of active and [number of] liquidated companies are registered. There are indications that this address is being used as a mass registration address.

The counterparty provided its contact information to the registration authorities, which characterizes it positively from the point of view of openness.

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the executive bodies of the counterparty company include a disqualified person.

The fact that there is an encumbrance on the share is essential:

The presence of a share in the pledge in some cases may indicate a deliberate veiling of the true beneficiaries of the company under the guise of pledge holders (“artificial encumbrance”), which is also one of the schemes for protecting against raider takeover.

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There are no financial statements for the last reporting period for the counterparty company.

Transfer of the savings portion to a non-state pension fund

After selecting a suitable NPF, the citizen needs to come to it to conclude an agreement. In this case, you must bring your passport and pension insurance certificate with you.

Next, you should write a standard application to transfer your insurance portion of your pension from the Pension Fund to the Non-State Pension Fund; a writing template must be provided by the fund’s consultants.

After filling out the application, the NPF will independently transfer the citizen’s funds from the Russian Pension Fund.

Features of storing savings in non-state pension funds

In order to finally make a decision on transferring your cash savings from a state to a non-state pension fund, you need to carefully study all the advantages and disadvantages of a non-state pension fund.

pros

All money in an account in a non-state pension fund will not be negatively affected by legislation. Their size is regulated only by an agreement concluded between the investor and the organization. In addition, certain tax benefits will be available.

The possibility of losing your money is minimized, since it is invested only in reliable projects that have been verified by the state.

Also, if significant disadvantages of a particular fund are discovered, your pension savings can be transferred to any other similar organization or back to the Pension Fund. At the same time, the size of regular contributions is determined only by the future pensioner himself, based on his financial capabilities.

But at the same time, the state constantly controls all non-state pension funds, which allows a citizen to be confident that he will not lose the money invested.

Any investor can check both the total amount of his savings and the amount of pension contributions. Moreover, in the event of a person’s death, all his funds pass to his heirs.

Minuses

The main disadvantage of many non-state pension funds is their low yield (often 1%), its large size cannot be guaranteed to be provided. Moreover, you can deposit money only in national currency, that is, in rubles.

If the investor wishes to withdraw his money, this can only be done in exceptional cases specified in the agreement. Therefore, you should be very careful when compiling it.

Also, one should not lose sight of the instability of the current economic situation in the country. The funds invested now will be received only upon reaching retirement age, that is, in several decades. This is also quite risky.

The last risk factor when transferring funds to non-state pension funds can be identified as possible negative changes in legislation specifically in relation to organizations of this kind.

Is it possible to change NPF?

An agreement with a non-state pension fund is not a lifetime contract. You can change the fund in search of more income or out of concern for the sustainability of your NPF. The rules for changing the fund for compulsory state pension insurance are uniform and determined by law. And for voluntary pensions, they are specified in the agreement with a specific fund. And these conditions for exiting a personal pension plan should be carefully studied in advance.

All over the world, non-state pension funds are the main source of “long-term money” for the economy. Since their contracts last for many years, funds can invest in long-term projects with increased returns.

But this also has a downside: if you want to withdraw money before the end of the contract, the fund may suffer losses. Therefore, all NPFs stipulate in advance the procedure for calculating the redemption amount, that is, the money that will be returned to you if you want to leave the pension plan ahead of time.

You may be left without investment income for several years or for the entire time. And sometimes you will receive even less than you contributed. Such details need to be clarified in advance.

List of TOP10 NPFs of Russia

Below is a list of the top ten pension and insurance funds. It was compiled taking into account the opinions of leading analysts, as well as based on statistical data.

1. NPF Sberbank

It was established by the largest Sberbank of Russia and has a license with an unlimited validity period. It has been operating since 1995, that is, it is one of the very first non-state pension funds. It has the maximum level of reliability according to expert estimates. The number of clients exceeds 7 million people, and the fund's assets amount to more than 400 billion rubles.

1. NPF Future

Currently it is one of the largest pension funds in the Russian Federation. Since March 2020, NPF "Stalfond" joined it, due to which their interest rates were combined, and clients became common. Also has a perpetual license. Financial analysts rate its reliability as moderate-low.

1. NPF Blastostoyanie

It has the highest level of reliability according to the ExpertRA website, which is a guarantee of stable and high pension payments. He has been working on OPS and software for 22 years, namely since 1996. In addition, it runs a pension program for employees of Russian Railways LLC. Its network consists of 16 branches and 56 divisions.

1. NPF Gazfond

The license was issued in 1997, and was subsequently replaced by an unlimited license. Number of depositors at the end of 2020: 231,774 people, of which more than 163 thousand citizens are already receiving pensions. According to the rating, RAEX has the highest level of reliability.

1. NPF Soglasie

It also has a reputation as one of the most stable and long-standing funds. It offers its clients a wide range of services both within the framework of non-state pension provision and in the field of state pension insurance. It has about 20 thousand participants, pensions are already paid to almost three thousand of them. Until the end of 2917, it was called JSC NPF OPK.

1. NPF Lukoil-Garant

It was created in Moscow more than 20 years ago. The main founder is JSC Neftyanaya. The size of assets is estimated at approximately 100 billion rubles. It also implements a program for corporate and additional pension insurance.

1. NPF Rosgosstrakh

The official date of creation is considered to be 2002. Founded by the Rosgosstrakh holding, which has repeatedly confirmed its stability and solvency. The fund promises its clients an increase in savings by 7.99%. According to experts, it has the highest degree of reliability.

1. NPF Safmar

Previously, the organization was called NPF Raiffeisenbank, but in 2015 it was purchased by BIN and renamed Safmar. A year later, this organization merged with three non-state pension funds. Member of the Association of Non-State Pension Funds.

1. NPF Trust

According to various agencies, the pension fund has a degree of confidence in this ranging from moderate to very high. It was created in 1997, which means it has successfully survived all crises. Branches are located in 40 cities of the Russian Federation, and representative offices are located in almost every federal district. The total amount of assets is 222 thousand rubles, and 719 out of 4,506 people are already receiving a pension.

1. NPF VTB

The fund has representative offices in 9 largest cities of Russia. According to the ExpertRA website, its level of reliability is the highest, and pension reserves are increasing every year.

Member of the international association of VTB companies, in which more than 30 banks and 20 countries participate. At the end of 2020, its depositors included more than 61 thousand people, of which 7,209 are already pensioners.

Advantages and disadvantages

I will mention the pros and cons of NPF Surgutneftegaz.

Should you be afraid to switch to a non-state pension fund?

Definitely, you should not feel afraid before starting to work with a non-state pension fund. The main thing is to carefully study and analyze all available information that relates to the selected organization.

Also, do not sign any documents without reviewing them first.

Please note that scammers often walk around apartments posing as pension fund employees. It is better to visit the NPF in person and conclude an agreement.

Personal account functionality

In the user’s personal account, immediately after registration and login, the following information becomes available:

• Income from pension contributions for the past year.
• All movements are counted.
• Electronic copy of the pension service agreement.

It may be noted that the fund does not provide the client with any rights to open new accounts, edit the conditions of old ones, change personal information and much more. For all this, you need to personally visit the branches of NPF “Surgutneftegas” and write the appropriate statements.