The pension legislation of the Russian Federation is currently structured in such a way that it allows citizens to take part in the formation of their future pension savings. This is expressed in the fact that there is an insurance and funded part of the pension.
An employee has the right to independently choose whether to form only an insurance pension or an insurance pension together with a funded one. Citizens have the right to place the latter both in the state Pension Fund and in private structures called non-state pension funds.
Placing your savings in a non-state pension fund is objectively more profitable than leaving them in a state fund, since the former offer the opportunity to receive a larger pension from investment income.
With all this, non-state funds do not have such a significant network of branches in the regions and cities of the country, and are also limited in information and advertising resources. In this regard, attracting new clients and informing them about all the features associated with the formation of the funded part of the pension is carried out through agents, who carry out most of the fund’s work with clients.
NPF agents - who are they?
Agents of non-state pension funds should be understood as individuals who are authorized by any non-state pension fund to enter into mandatory pension agreements with citizens.
Reference! The OPS agreement is a document that a citizen who decides to transfer his pension savings concludes with the fund of his choice. The agent is only an intermediary.
The responsibilities of agents, in addition to completing the necessary paperwork, include actively attracting new clients. To do this, they conduct presentations of the proposed service funds on the basis of various types of organizations and enterprises, and also carry out advisory work with citizens on issues related to the transfer of their pension savings to non-state pension funds.
The profession of an agent is quite in demand in the labor market, as non-state pension funds seek to expand their presence to all regions of the country and cover a large part of the working population. In this regard, the number of agent vacancies that are necessary to carry out effective work to attract new clients is constantly increasing.
In addition, the popularity of this type of activity is influenced by the low threshold for entering the profession, as a result of which almost every able-bodied citizen of the Russian Federation can try to work in this field.
How NPF agents are hunting for our pension savings
Unscrupulous NPF agents haunt Russians, deceiving and forcing them to enter into agreements on the transfer of pension savings. Taking advantage of the gullibility of citizens, they go to houses and businesses, offer to write an application, sign an agreement, and take photographs of documents.
To be fair, we note that not all agents work this way, but judging by the number of citizens’ appeals to the Pension Fund, there are a lot of scammers.
NPF agents come home
People who introduce themselves as employees of the “pension sector”, employees of the “Pension Reform Assistance Fund”, and often even employees of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, may knock on your door, while presenting all kinds of “office IDs”, without allowing them to be examined and to clarify which specific Pension Fund Office they are present.
The so-called “employees of the pension sector” and other mythical organizations, taking advantage of the gullibility of our fellow citizens and people’s ignorance of pension issues, strongly recommend, and in some cases demand, to provide them with the citizen’s personal data (passport and SNILS). They explain the requirement by the need to urgently enter the data of these documents into the “PFR database.”
Other “walkers” directly strongly recommend urgently signing a document (agreement), without going into detail about the meaning of the document, but intimidating with tight deadlines and the possibility of losing all savings in case of refusal.
Inventive visitors do not forget to refer to legislative acts, which for the most part have nothing to do with either pension savings or the Pension Fund as a whole.
It’s sad, but many of our fellow citizens, being educated adults, frightened by such pressure and misled by the vague wording “pension sector employee” or “pension consultant”, forgetting all precautions, allow such guests into the house, provide their passport details and sign, without reading, everything that was offered to them was complained to the Pension Fund.
NPF agents come to work
Some unscrupulous NPF agents do not go door to door to obtain personal data of citizens. They come to the organization and present the head with “papers” from non-existent government bodies (for example, the Federal Document Verification Service) and demand personal data of employees for verification and recording in the “base”.
Sometimes it works. The enchanted employer gives everything that is needed, complained the Pension Fund office in the Smolensk region.
Our readers also talked about similar visits. So, people came to the entrepreneur’s store and, introducing themselves as employees of the Pension Fund of Russia, demanded a copy of her SNILS card from the frightened seller.
Features of working as an NPF agent
Working as an NPF agent, like any other type of work activity, has its own characteristics that should be taken into account when applying for employment. These include:
- No connection to a place of work . An NPF agent is almost never in the organization’s office. Most of the time he makes presentations or communicates with citizens, encouraging them to enter into OPS agreements. At the same time, agents often go around residential buildings in search of clients. In addition, many specialists do not limit their work to just one locality, but also travel to other cities and regions.
- Irregular working hours . Agents of non-state pension funds, due to the specifics of their activities, do not have a strict schedule. As a rule, their work time is limited by the fact of fulfilling a certain plan and the desire of the specialist himself to earn more money.
- Earnings depending on work efficiency. As a rule, NPF agents do not have any guaranteed and permanent salary type salary. This means that there is essentially no cap on earnings. Successful professionals can earn much more than workers who receive a monthly salary.
- Customer focus . To perform their duties, NPF specialists must constantly be in contact with people - potential clients. In this regard, the agent is required to have developed communication skills.
NPF agent. Work or business?
Every year, more than 5 million Russian citizens sign compulsory pension insurance agreements with non-state pension funds. About 4.5 million do this with the participation of so-called “pension consultants” (or NPF agents). According to various estimates, at least 5,000 Russians now work as pension fund agents.
Such a large number of employees is not surprising. It is known that the profitability of this type of activity is very high due to minimal financial costs. It is believed that the costs of the average pension agent are no more than 3 thousand rubles per month, and the return in the form of fund remuneration reaches 100 thousand rubles and more. And all this with a relatively free work schedule and a 30-hour work week.
Most agents work in the locality where they live. Especially “restless” ones can regularly visit other cities and regions of the Russian Federation.
Non-state pension funds and brokers do not stop recruiting various NPF agents and pension consultants. Very often, applicants for “potentially highly paid” jobs have many questions. Among them are the following:
- What kind of work is this, what is its essence?
- What is the legal basis for this type of activity?
- What are the rights and responsibilities of NPF agents?
- Is it financially beneficial to be a pension consultant?
- How difficult is it to work as a pension fund agent?
In the future, many (already existing) agents have another question: is this a job or is it already a full-fledged business? There is no clear answer to this question. Let's look at this from different points of view.
1. From a financial point of view, this is similar to “self-employment” or “your own business.” The most active pension consultants earn monthly more than 150-200 thousand rubles, which is comparable to the annual earnings of a public sector employee. One can only envy successful consultants.
2. Working as an NPF agent offers the opportunity for career growth. It is obvious that sooner or later the consultant reaches such a professional level that he will have something to teach his younger (professionally) colleagues. It is logical that such training can bring additional rewards to the agent.
3. This activity initially assumes a free work schedule. However, you need to remember that the remuneration that the agent will receive at the end of the month directly depends on the volume and quality of the work performed. A pension fund agent, as is correct, does not have a guaranteed salary.
Let us note that in recent years a separate group has emerged among pension consultants: “pension brokers”. These are legal entities that coordinate the work of a group of agents on behalf of a non-state pension fund. A pension broker is a full-fledged professional business model. Now brokers take on all the functions of non-state pension funds in working with individual agents and agent groups. throughout the Russian Federation. This allows funds to focus on their direct responsibilities - competently and effectively managing pension savings.
For a novice agent, it is very important to get to a broker who will give the employee the opportunity to grow and develop professionally, ensure timely payment of agency fees and better working conditions. As a rule, the broker enters into a special agency agreement with the NPF agent, which clearly states all the conditions for further cooperation.
Unfortunately, in this note I was unable to give a clear answer to the question “work or business?” However, each reader must answer it independently.
Pros and cons of being an agent
Working in this field has many advantages and positive aspects for those who decide to realize themselves in this. At the same time, there are certain disadvantages that make this type of activity not so attractive. This should be discussed in more detail.
pros
- the opportunity to earn good money, since the ceiling of earning potential is limited only by the agent’s ability to work and his professional data;
- career growth - an experienced employee may well take the place of a mentor to new and less successful ones;
- free schedule without being tied to a specific place of work;
- participation in trainings and courses to improve cold sales skills;
- easy entry into the profession - for this work, most non-state pension funds do not require future workers to have a vocational education.
Minuses
- lack of stability in terms of earnings - agents do not receive wages without attracting new clients;
- high level of stress associated with communicating with completely different people, including those who are not always positive.
Important! Many are frightened by the prospect of public speaking, the skills of which are simply necessary for an NPF agent.
How to become an NPF agent
There are two ways to get a job in the capacity discussed in the article: directly or through a pension broker. Both of these forms of employment are popular at the moment.
- Directly, without an intermediary. Many pension funds are constantly looking for employees and regularly announce the recruitment of new ones. Each newcomer must undergo special training before starting their work function. It is usually completely free.
- Through a pension broker . This method is increasingly gaining popularity. Its essence lies in the fact that a certain legal entity enters into a regular agency agreement with a non-state pension fund and undertakes to attract subagents to fulfill obligations under it, becoming a pension broker.
In practice, it does not matter much for an agent which form of cooperation with NPFs to choose - directly or through intermediaries.
Search vacancies
There is no shortage of jobs in this area. Announcements of open vacancies can be found on any popular employment site. In addition, NPFs or pension brokers themselves publish information about the search for employees on their websites on the Internet.
It should be remembered that although there are a large number of reputable offers, the applicant can still contact scammers . In this regard, you should never start working without first concluding an agency agreement, the study of all points of which is mandatory before signing.
How to become an agent?
Different funds may have different requirements for employees in this category. For example, in some cases it is still required to have a higher education and experience in insurance work. Depending on the duties assigned to agents and the degree of responsibility, different companies have different salary levels. In most cases, wages are paid not according to the tariff schedule, but according to the fact of the work performed. The salary in this case depends on the number of attracted clients and the amount of their insurance payments.
To obtain employment in this specialty, a minimum of documentation is required - a passport, tax identification number, and in some cases, a work book. A prerequisite is the signing of an agreement with the employer. It discusses the main payment criteria, work schedule and other nuances of this activity.
Where to find an NPF agent
As a rule, people with offers from non-state pension funds themselves go to apartments and houses in search of clients to conclude an agreement. However, a situation may well arise when a working citizen himself wants to transfer his pension savings to one or another fund. In this case, he may require the services of an agent. Finding such a specialist is easier than it seems.
Specialized sites
The websites of large pension brokers contain all the necessary information about the specifics of transferring the funded part of a pension to a non-state pension fund. In addition, such Internet resources contain contact information, using which you can find an agent of the desired non-governmental fund.
Working as an NPF agent is popular among many citizens. People are primarily attracted to this field by the opportunity to earn good money and a flexible work schedule. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that this type of activity requires significant dedication, since it involves hard and intense work with a variety of people. In this regard, communication skills and stress resistance are the leading personal qualities of an agent.
Social media
In many popular social networks, NPF agents create thematic groups that serve as a means of their internal communication.
In addition, many pension funds and brokers create their own pages and communities, by contacting the administrators of which you can find an NPF agent ready to advise on all issues related to the transfer of savings to a non-governmental organization.
