The challenge of an aging population is getting more and more acute every day. On the one hand, the European Commission states that close to one out of five people over 65 in the European Union are at risk of poverty and that women are not sufficiently protected with regard to their rights to an adequate pension. On the other hand, the cost of pensions puts an increasingly heavy toll on public finances. Therefore the Commission recommends lengthening the active life of EU citizens, making the labour market more flexible, and promoting retirement savings. For many years, savers have been invited to save for their old age by paying into a funded system (second pillar) or into voluntary private funded accounts (third pillar). In every corner of Europe, the leitmotiv is "to contribute more and for a longer period of time". For Better Finance, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users that is not enough, as such strategy removes a crucial element from the equation: the inadequate real return.
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