>Delphine Saleres-Deney, CFO, Garden Center Schilliger

Why did you want to join the Pension Board?

First off, I’m deeply invested in the idea of ensuring a stable and secure financial future for the coming generations. And I’m passionate about anything that has to do with social responsibility, sustainable development, and equitable treatment. I saw joining AVENA’s Pension Board as an opportunity to contribute directly to that mission. Drawing on my skills and my 20 years of professional experience, I hope to contribute to the strategic decisions needed to safeguard the future of retirement. I also come with some background in occupational pensions, having served as an employee representative with my previous employer’s pension fund. 

What is your role on the Board?

Besides participating in Board meetings, I sit on the Marketing and Communications Committee and the Real Estate Committee. One of my responsibilities as a Board member is to help develop and oversee the investment policy, ensuring that it’s in line with the Fund’s long-term goals. In addition, I’m involved in assessing risks and opportunities and in monitoring the overall performance of the Fund’s investments. In that capacity, I work to represent the interests of all of our members and to ensure everyone enjoys equal treatment.

What challenges is the Board facing right now?

One of our major challenges will be navigating an investment environment that’s constantly changing – identifying and seizing opportunities while also mitigating risks. In that regard, I’m particularly mindful of the policy we’ve adopted with regard to responsible investing and, in particular, to the incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria in the Fund’s investments. We’ll also need to remain vigilant because of economic and regulatory challenges on the horizon that could affect AVENA’s financial stability. I’ll give you an example: real estate. We need to ensure that our real-estate portfolio is in line with our sustainability commitments and that it complies with the law – which continues to evolve.

Where do you see AVENA in ten years?

In ten years, I see AVENA as a leader in the occupational pension sector, as a pension fund known for its careful, innovative investment management as well as for its solid performance. That’s why it’s so important to implement a responsible investment strategy today – so that we can safeguard the future of tomorrow’s retirees. I’m also convinced that we will have continued to expand our sphere of influence and our impact by offering high-quality pension solutions to a growing number of members.

The impressive online and in-person turnout and the numerous questions asked underscored members’ need for information on the Swiss pension system, as well as their keen interest in retirement planning.
This year, for the first time, we used a different format for each information session. The first one,  “Occupational pension Q&A night,” was our first extended question-and-answer session run both in-person and online; it proved to be a hit, with close to 120 questions asked at the event. The following session, “The ABCs of your occupational pension,” was held as a German-only online event for the first time and drew a large crowd. The final session, “Key steps in retirement planning,” was held in Lausanne in person, bringing together fund members of all ages from across Vaud Canton.

Advantages of AVENA
Some fund members had questions about how the Swiss pension system works in general: When can I take early retirement? What steps do I need to take now if I want to retire in five years? How is the conversion rate calculated, and how low can it go? What reference salary will be used to calculate my AVS pension if I change employers one year before retirement? 
Other members asked questions specific to how AVENA works, which gave panelists the opportunity to highlight AVENA’s advantages relative to other pension funds. These include the inability to rapidly reduce the conversion rate under the current regulations, and the fact that if a member dies before retirement, any voluntary contributions (less early withdrawals) will be returned to the beneficiaries.

Spotlight on phased retirement 
Fund members’ questions also pointed to their embrace of the trend toward phased retirement: Can I continue to work after I retire? In which canton does it make sense tax-wise to hold my retirement capital if I retire abroad? Can I stop working at 55? Should my retirement budget be the same at 86 as it is when I’m 66? Questions such as these showed that people in Switzerland are increasingly choosing to keep working at least part-time in retirement or to ease into retirement, whether for financial reasons or to maintain social ties.

Voluntary contributions: beyond the basics
These increasingly complex retirement situations also prompted a great many questions about voluntary contributions, also known in Switzerland as “purchasing” past years to close any gaps in pension coverage. Until what age can I continue to make voluntary contributions? How do I make voluntary contributions when I have several businesses registered in my name? How can I simulate my options for making voluntary contributions? 
Francis Bouvier, the director of AVENA, and Olivier Reymond, a retirement planning specialist at BCV, reviewed the basics of voluntary contributions in their presentations. They also provided tips and tools for fund members on understanding their pension statements, preparing a retirement budget, keeping in mind important deadlines, spreading their pension assets across several accounts in order to stagger withdrawals, and more.

“Take out your phones!”
The sessions were highly interactive, with attendees encouraged to use their mobile phones to submit anonymous questions and respond to live polls, such as “How many of you have already made a retirement budget?” Despite the differences in fund members’ individual situations, this format revealed a number of common questions and doubts – underscoring the importance of information sessions like these. See you in 2025!

Learn more
Click on the links below for a recap of the three information sessions discussed here. Answers to a number of questions asked by fund members are available here.

• Occupational pension Q&A night – 5 November 2024 | AVENA – Fondation BCV 2e pilier
• The ABCs of your occupational pension – 7 November 2024 | AVENA – Fondation BCV 2e pilier (in German only)
• Key steps in retirement planning – 3 December 2024 | Avena Fondation BCV 2e pilier
   

So how are we doing? In 2022, AVENA’s Pension Board decided to have our responsible investment practices evaluated to better prepare for the future. After assessing our portfolio according to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, Conser awarded us an overall score of A–. This places us above the benchmark of B, on a scale that ranges from D (poor) to A+ (very good).

Conser has developed a methodology (ESG Consensus®) that it uses to compare different portfolios and produce a broad picture of a portfolio’s sustainability. “We assess all underlying assets and the final score reflects the portfolio’s average level of sustainability. We also evaluate the portfolio’s exposure to major controversies, sensitive sectors, and climate change,” said a Conser spokesperson. For AVENA’s portfolio, Conser only analyzed stocks and bonds, which make up two thirds of the portfolio. We received a score of A for the bond component and A– for the stock component. Our direct real-estate investments are being evaluated by real-estate specialist SignaTerre.

According to the report, AVENA is above the benchmark when it comes to adhering to international standards on issues like corruption, environmental damage, and human rights. This is also the case for controversial sectors like the alcohol industry, GMOs, nuclear energy, and adult entertainment. As for the portfolio’s impact on the environment, our exposure to fossil fuels is below the benchmark, and our exposure to carbon-intensive companies and sectors – which reflects the ratio between our holdings’ emissions and revenues – sits below 12%.

These scores “show how productive discussions have been between the AVENA Pension Board and BCV, the fund manager,” said Francis Bouvier, the director of AVENA. “The report will be used to define and assess our long-term sustainability strategy.”

Continuing along this positive trajectory, AVENA intends to come up with a sustainability charter and will begin publishing a sustainability report this year, in keeping with ASIP recommendations.

Dear Fund member,

On 21 September 2023, the votes for the Pension Board elections were counted.

We are pleased to announce the newly elected members of the AVENA Pension Board for the 2024–2028 term:

Employer representatives

	Dominique Blanchard VCT Vector Gestion SA Director
	Giovanni Chiusano Fiduciaire Fidinter SA  Executive-director
	Yvan Henzer Libra Law SA Executive
	Alexandre Pahud  Fondation Michel Torche  Secretary-General
	François Pugliese ELITE SA CEO
	Catherine Vogt  Hesperia SA CEO

Employee representatives

	Bruno Chappuis European Broadcasting Union Senior Sports Rights Manager
	Cosette Hausammann Protocol SA  Head of Finance and Administration
	Claudine Eveline Imhof Proactif ouvertures Formation Sàrl Joint Head of Digital Training
	Claude Rey FidAlp Audit SA   Swiss Certified Fiduciary Advisor
	Sylvain Rochat Hervest Fiduciaire SA  Director / Certified Tax Expert
	Delphine Saleres-Deney Garden Center Schilliger SA CFO

The new Pension Board was presented at the Fund’s Biennial Conference, which was held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne on 4 October 2023.

We wish them every success in the coming term.