The French pensions landscape and legislation is complex, fast-changing, and often very difficult to navigate. To help its clients deal with this, Swiss Life France has developed a dedicated team of specialists with in-depth knowledge of the pension system and solid industry experience, backed up, naturally, by expert technical systems.
Swiss Life France offers a complete range of savings and pension plans for corporations, with a customizable product shelf that includes defined contribution(DC) and defined benefit (DB) plans, combined DC/DB plans, termination indemnities, employee savings schemes, as well as early retirement plans.
Made to measure solutions for every company
Based on this comprehensive range of offerings, Swiss Life France tailors its solutions to meet each client’s specific needs, and provides a range of open-architecture financial management options, as well as a wide choice of annuity options.
For example, while Swiss Life France promotes the retirement fund management services of Swiss Life Asset Managers based on a long track record of performance, if clients prefer to use a totally different provider, this can also be gladly arranged.
In France, the value of general assets for retirement is guaranteed by law (with 0% interest). With the Swiss Life General Assets option, which most employees select, there is even an extra level of interest guarantee for savings (the annual interests are definitively acquired). But Swiss Life France provides also open-ended investments for a total flexibility, or targeted financial management (with different kind of profiles), based on an innovative management style and focused on controlled volatility.
Expert team focused on client needs
According to Swiss Life France, it is their people who make the ultimate difference. The corporate pension team is both expert and experienced, with a mindset that ensures that they always listen to their customers. Having understood the client’s issues and requirements, they advise on the most suitable solution, taking care to design this to be as simple and straightforward as possible in order to simplify day-to-day administration.
When a client has more sophisticated needs, the insurer adapts its solutions and services to match. This is a process that runs throughout the relationship: from the initial stages, through the design phase, to implementation and beyond. Clients can also rely on on-going advice and services even after their pension plans are up and running.
Sophisticated online features
Swiss Life France provides a website with dedicated 24/7 access for companies and their employees, enabling them to manage their retirement accounts on line in a simple manner. This web interface is designed to benefit plan members by providing access to information that is crucial to their financial security in retirement. The additional service is a result of Swiss Life France's dedication to transparency and client focus.
Technology plays a more prominent role, however, as a way to simplify and speed up processes for corporate clients and reduce the time needed for plan implementation and administration. For example, when a company implements a pension plan, its HR department faces a huge challenge: there is an enormous amount of work involved, extending from negotiations with employees, to budgeting, to ensuring seamless and reliable implementation.
This is where Swiss Life France comes in, taking over all the technical implementation details. The employer simply hands over a spread-sheet with the necessary information, and Swiss Life handles every aspect of setting up the plan, producing and sending out certificates, and suggesting investment options to employees directly. This is a huge benefit for the HR department, which is relieved of all these tasks. Naturally, these services are supported by a powerful IT system at the backend – although here again, Swiss Life France emphasizes that ultimately, it is the people behind the system who really make the system run smoothly.