For the ninth year in a row, BETTER FINANCE embarked on the herculean task of gathering all the data on long-term and pension savings in 17 EU Member States and published its annual report on the real net returns of long-term and retirement savings. Unfortunately, the “Real Return of Long-Term and Pension Savings” Report remains the most complete research looking at the performance and actual costs of long-term and pension savings products in the EU.
Although years of bullish markets improved the long-term returns of most products analysed, too many barely cover inflation and only a handful come close to the performance of a simple, broad EU capital markets benchmark (50% equities and 50% bonds).