Increase in earned premiums

Defined benefit schemes

A defined benefit scheme is a pension scheme where the benefits payable to the employee on retirement are determined by the use of a formula, either alone or in combination with a guaranteed minimum amount payable. The risk of a defined benefit scheme to provide an adequate income in retirement is borne by the employer ( source: Eurostat ). In Norway, the payment guaranties a pension on a certain level in addition to National insurance, or that the payment is a fixed percentage level of their salary. You can have defined benefit schemes in life insurance companies or in pension funds.

Defined contribution schemes

A defined contribution scheme is a pension scheme where the benefits are defined exclusively in terms of the level of the fund built up from the contribution made over the employee's working life. The increases in value of these funds depend of the yield on the investment and the saving period. The entire risk of the scheme to provide an adequate income in retirement is thus borne by the employee ( source: Eurostat ). In 2001, companies were allowed to establish defined contribution schemes with tax deduction. Defined contribution schemes can be established in life insurance companies, pension funds, banks and mutual funds management companies.

Individual pension

The legislation of individual pension agreements gives all persons over 18 years right to sign such an agreement independently of work affiliation. Individual pension agreements may be made in a form of defined contribution or pension insurance agreements and can be establish in life insurance companies, pension funds, banks and mutual funds management companies.

Retirement pension

Benefit to people that is retired, usually by 67 years old or older, or that have retired by joint pension under collective agreement, usually 62 years old.

Disability pension

If the salary is reduced because of illness or handicapped injury, disability pension may be relevant

Survivor pension

When a person dies, surviving spouse can be entitled to survivor pension.

Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund

The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund is the main pension fund in public sector. It is regulated by law of 28. July 1949 about Statens Pensjonskasse. It is an unfunded pension fund, and it is a part of the general government. The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund is financed on a pay-as you-go basis and only 65 per cent of total premium is paid direct by the employers.

The Statistics comes from Statistics Norway annual reports from life insurance companies, pension funds and banks, while the numbers from Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund comes from their annual accounts 2004 - 2008.

Pension schemes in Norway

Pension secures income for people when they retire from work, become disabled or if they are surviving spouse. The National Insurance Scheme in Norway secure pension for all people living in Norway for the last 12 months. Through work people will build up supplementary pension. Employees in public sector have been covered by occupational pension for several years. A new legislation from 2006 regulated a mandatory occupational pension for the employees also in private sector. Occupational pension are either defined benefit schemes, where the pension for the employee is fixed, or defined contribution schemes, where the payment to the fund is a fixed percentage of the income. In private sector you can have both, but in public sector there are only defined benefit schemes. Defined benefit schemes can be establish in life insurance companies or in pension funds, while defined contribution schemes also can be established in banks and mutual funds management companies. The statistics published in this article consist of information from the life insurance companies, pension funds, Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund and banks and includes retirement, disability and survivor pension.

In addition to National insurance scheme and occupational pension, each person can save individually to the retirement by buying an Individual Pension Agreement (IPA) until 2006, and Individual Pension Saving (IPS) from 2008.