Mad Hon · Pension savings

Compare your pension funds and merge the strays

Compare your pension funds and merge the strays. A step-by-step Mad Hon guide for your Pension savings score, written for olim.

1. Pull your Har HaKesef report.
Har HaKesef, the money mountain, is the free Ministry of Finance service that lists the pension funds, provident funds, keren hishtalmut accounts and managers-insurance policies registered in your name, including ones opened by employers you have since left. It is not the same service as Har HaBituach, the insurance mountain, which is the Capital Market Authority register of insurance policies and does not carry pension or provident accounts at all. You identify yourself through the national digital identity service. For anyone who has worked at more than one Israeli employer this is usually where a forgotten account turns up.
2. List the active accounts and the dormant ones separately.
Har HaKesef tells you which accounts exist and who manages them, not what is in them. For the balance, the deposits and the fees you want the pension clearing house, which returns the full per-product detail. For each account write down the manager, the monthly deposit, the accumulated balance, and both fees: the one charged on the balance and the one charged on each deposit. An active fund is receiving deposits now; a dormant one holds a balance and receives nothing. Dormant accounts are the first candidates to merge, because they carry fees against a balance that is no longer growing from contributions.
3. Compare on both fees and on three to five years of returns.
The common mistake is comparing a single year. A fund charging 0.2 percent on the balance and 2.0 percent on deposits can be much cheaper over thirty years than one charging 0.5 and nothing, depending on the balance you are building against the deposits you are making. Compare returns on the track that matches your age band rather than on the fund overall, since the tracks hold different things.
4. Check the disability and survivors cover before you move an old account.
This is the step that costs people money. Cover attached to a fund is repriced at your current age, so an account opened when you were younger can be carrying cheaper terms that do not survive the move. Ask the receiving fund what the cover will cost at your age, and ask specifically about anything in your medical history, before filing.
5. File the transfer with the fund you are keeping.
Transfers run through the pension clearing house, and the receiving fund starts the process, not the one you are leaving. Most of it is automatic and it takes a few weeks. Accrued rights move with the balance. One thing to finish afterwards: redirect the live payroll deposit to the surviving fund, because merging balances while the monthly deposit still points at the old account is how a second fund quietly reappears.

Compare your pension funds and merge the strays. A step-by-step Mad Hon guide for your Pension savings score, written for olim.

1. Pull your Har HaKesef report.

Har HaKesef, the money mountain, is the free Ministry of Finance service that lists the pension funds, provident funds, keren hishtalmut accounts and managers-insurance policies registered in your name, including ones opened by employers you have since left. It is not the same service as Har HaBituach, the insurance mountain, which is the Capital Market Authority register of insurance policies and does not carry pension or provident accounts at all. You identify yourself through the national digital identity service. For anyone who has worked at more than one Israeli employer this is usually where a forgotten account turns up.

2. List the active accounts and the dormant ones separately.

Har HaKesef tells you which accounts exist and who manages them, not what is in them. For the balance, the deposits and the fees you want the pension clearing house, which returns the full per-product detail. For each account write down the manager, the monthly deposit, the accumulated balance, and both fees: the one charged on the balance and the one charged on each deposit. An active fund is receiving deposits now; a dormant one holds a balance and receives nothing. Dormant accounts are the first candidates to merge, because they carry fees against a balance that is no longer growing from contributions.

3. Compare on both fees and on three to five years of returns.

The common mistake is comparing a single year. A fund charging 0.2 percent on the balance and 2.0 percent on deposits can be much cheaper over thirty years than one charging 0.5 and nothing, depending on the balance you are building against the deposits you are making. Compare returns on the track that matches your age band rather than on the fund overall, since the tracks hold different things.

4. Check the disability and survivors cover before you move an old account.

This is the step that costs people money. Cover attached to a fund is repriced at your current age, so an account opened when you were younger can be carrying cheaper terms that do not survive the move. Ask the receiving fund what the cover will cost at your age, and ask specifically about anything in your medical history, before filing.

5. File the transfer with the fund you are keeping.

Transfers run through the pension clearing house, and the receiving fund starts the process, not the one you are leaving. Most of it is automatic and it takes a few weeks. Accrued rights move with the balance. One thing to finish afterwards: redirect the live payroll deposit to the surviving fund, because merging balances while the monthly deposit still points at the old account is how a second fund quietly reappears.