Four Pillars (Geneva Association)
The Four Pillars is a research programme set up in 1987 by the Geneva Association, also known as the International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics. The aim of the Four Pillars research programme is to study the key importance in the new service economy of Social Security, Insurance, Savings and Employment. The programme focuses on the future of pensions, welfare provision|welfare] and employment. The Geneva Association launched its Four Pillars research programme with a view to identifying possible solutions to the issue of the future financing of pensions and, more generally, to organising social security systems in our post-industrial societies. Demographic trends - especially increased life and health expectancy - could be seen as positive if we were able to devise ways of enabling "ageing in good-health populations" to make a valid economic and social contribution to the functioning of our service economies over the decades to come.
The concept of the Four Pillars owes its origin to the fact that in most countries the funding of pensions is based on three pillars:The 1st pillar: the compulsory, pay-as-you-go, state pension;The 2nd pillar: the supplementary occupational pension;The 3rd pillar: individual savings.
The Geneva Association advocated in its publications and seminars a strengthening of the 2nd pillar and further development of 3rd pillar resources. However, the attention of the Geneva Association has focused above all on a 4th pillar i.e. the future need for a flexible extension of work-life, mainly on a part-time basis, in order to supplement income from the three existing pillars. The reorganization of end-of-career and the new age-management strategy - in which gradual retirement is destined to play a key role - involved in establishing this pillar, also correspond to many of the changes that are specific to our contemporary service economies.
Main objectives
The research programme has had four main objectives:- Analysis of the key elements in organizing old-age security systems
- Research of conditions for multi-pillar systems of pension financing
- Encouragement of complementary solutions to the challenges of a changing welfare state and new life-cycles, in particular of the key importance of a flexible extension of working life, that is the building of a 4th pillar
- Understanding the role of insurance in the provision of old-age security systems
Main activities
Over the years, the main activities of the Four Pillars programme have included:- Undertaking research on key issues and contributing to research undertaken by international networks
- Stimulating pension and similar experts in reconsidering mainstream research and encouraging alternative views and approaches
- Organizing seminars and conferences on these topics and participating in international events
- Publishing numerous materials such as books, special issues of The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, The Four Pillars Newsletter, dedicated issues of the working papers "Etudes & Dossiers", brochures in English and French for a wider public, contributions to academic and professional reviews, etc.
Relevance to the insurance sector
The Four Pillars research programme is relevant to the insurance sector in six main areas:- Global partnership between the public and private sectors
- Development of second and third pillar pensions
- Promotion of an extension of working life, i.e. of a fourth pillar
- Encouragement of global savings and life insurance
In insurance, as in other sectors of the economy, workforce ageing will require planning for improved age management as a matter of urgency. The Geneva Association's studies at the European and international levels have shown that, among other things, continuing training, worktime reduction, job redesign and a review of the seniority-pay principle, will need increasingly to be addressed by individual insurance companies. Codes of employment might be an ideal place to start in developing new age management strategies.Devate and communication
Developing multi-pillar pension systems and promoting an extension of occupational life depend on certain conditions being met and will need to be preceded by a coherent, broad-based, informed and ongoing debate of all these issues. With the research programme and its fourth-pillar proposals, the Geneva Association has been able to do pioneer work in this field and has made a significant contribution to this all-important debate.