Government’s policy is to encourage savings in such pension plan products – either on an individual level or on an employer basis. The State pension is designed to provide a person with an adequate pension income that provides dignity in retirement.

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The State pension, however, is not designed to provide a pension income that provides a replacement rate that is close to the gross basic wage or income enjoyed in employment. This is particularly true for those whose wage or income exceeds the maximum pensionable income ceiling on which an individual’s social security contribution is paid. This can be seen from the example presented in the Table below.

ĠEMMA underlines the importance of complementing one’s State pension with a further income to boost one’s disposable income during retirement. Investing in a voluntary pension plan is a decision that ĠEMMA strongly recommends.

ĠEMMA recognises, however, that voluntary private pension plans are still new to Malta and the framework and terminology surrounding such plans is unfamiliar to most persons.

ĠEMMA emphasises that a financial decision should be an informed one – and one that fits your personal financial and/or life cycle. This Private Pensions Plans Jargon Buster Guidebook is designed to help you become somewhat more familiar with the technical terms of voluntary pension plans. The objective of this guidebook is to assist a person who wants to invest in voluntary private pension plan to engage in an informed discussion with a Pension Plan Provider.

This Private Pensions Plans Jargon Buster seeks to omit the technical jargon used by pension plan providers and seeks to explain these in a simplified manner. ĠEMMA recognises that in certain instances this has not always been possible to achieve. ĠEMMA invites persons and pension plan providers to present suggestions on how this guidebook can be simplified further. Such suggestions are kindly to be sent to the attention of the ĠEMMA Team at gemma@gov.mt.

ĠEMMA thanks APS Bank for assisting it in the production of this Guidebook. Visit the ĠEMMA Facebook page and give us a like!