Your pension savings are being invested
AP Pension invests your pension savings so you can achieve the best possible return and thereby the largest possible pension. When the time comes for your pension savings to be paid out, the return generated by the investments over time may constitute a significant part of your total pension.
In total, AP Pension’s customers have savings exceeding DKK 180 billion. With such a large pool of money, AP Pension can make major investments while also spreading risk. We believe this creates a foundation for strong returns.
How your pension can be invested
When you choose how your pension savings should be invested, you must first decide how involved you want to be in the investment of your pension, and how much risk is right for you.
We choose for you
If you want AP Pension to invest your savings with a level of risk that matches your age—and gradually reduce the risk as you approach retirement—you should choose Lifecycle. Lifecycle can be selected with high, medium, or low risk, with varying sustainability criteria and varying degrees of active management—affecting investment costs.
Lifecycle AP Active is the option most customers choose. In AP Active, the majority of investments are actively managed, while in Lifecycle AP Basis, investments are primarily passively managed. Lifecycle AP Omtanke has stricter sustainability requirements.
You choose together with us
If you want AP Pension to manage the investments—that is, ensure the allocation across asset classes and select the specific investments—but you want to control the risk level yourself, and without AP Pension reducing risk as you age, you can choose a fund with a fixed risk level.
You choose yourself
If you want to assemble the investment of your pension savings independently, you can choose among a number of funds selected by AP Pension. AP Pension offers a range of funds within the asset classes equities, bonds, and alternative investments.
Stable account development
Finally, you can choose ‘average interest rate’ if you want stable account development. In AP Stabil, AP Pension evens out returns from year to year, so the expectation is that you as a customer will experience a stable development of your pension account. There is no guarantee against losses, and if exceptionally large losses occur on the assets, the account value may be written down, or a value protection mechanism may be introduced.
You can change your investment choice on Min Pension, where you can also see which funds you can invest in. On Min Pension, you can take the investment guide to determine which savings option suits you.
How does AP Pension invest?
AP Pension wants to pursue an active and offensive investment strategy with controlled risk. The strategy aims for you as a customer to achieve an adequate and attractive pension. We invest long-term and are not significantly affected by short-term fluctuations in rates. At AP Pension, we spread our investments across regions and sectors to limit risk.
We invest in a wide range of assets: shares, traditional government and mortgage bonds, corporate and credit bonds, real estate and alternative investments such as wind and solar energy, forestry and agriculture.
Within shares and bonds, we hand pick a few active partners (managers) who find the best investments for us worldwide. We do this because we believe that active management gives our customers the best return and the largest pension pots.
In addition to working for the best possible return for you as a customer, we also want to contribute to the companies in our portfolio moving in a more responsible direction overall. With our responsible investment policy and our product line AP Bæredygtig, we have made it easy to invest your pension with a focus on sustainability.
You can read more about various topics relating to the investment of your pension savings below.
How do you see your return or interest?
You can see your return or interest by logging on to Min Pension (in Danish only). You can follow the figures in kroner and percent every day here – and also see figures for previous years.
If you have Mobil AP on your phone, you can also see returns and interest in the app. It also gives you a visual overview of your figures for the last five years.
Can you change your investment selection?
You can change your investment selection by logging on to Min Pension (in Danish only) and selecting “Investering”.
You can see and change how your current savings and future contributions are invested here.
Which funds can you invest in?
You can see the funds you have the opportunity to invest in – or which AP Pension invests in for you – by clicking here.
Please note that the funds in which you can invest depend on your agreement.
How does AP Pension invest?
AP Pension wants to pursue an active and offensive investment strategy with controlled risk. The strategy aims for you as a customer to achieve an adequate and attractive pension. We invest long-term and are not significantly affected by short-term fluctuations in rates. At AP Pension, we spread our investments across regions and sectors to limit risk.
We invest in a wide range of assets: shares, traditional government and mortgage bonds, corporate and credit bonds, real estate and alternative investments such as wind and solar energy, forestry and agriculture.
Within shares and bonds, we hand pick a few active partners (managers) who find the best investments for us worldwide. We do this because we believe that active management gives our customers the best return and the largest pension pots.
Does AP Pension have a responsible investment policy?
AP Pension’s responsible and sustainable investment policy is based on well-defined and recognized international principles concerning human rights, corruption and the environment. The policy is based on the UN Global Compact and also follows the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN’s Guidelines on Human Rights and Business and widely recognized UN conventions. It is AP Pension’s view that by following the international principles, we can ensure responsible management of our customers’ savings. AP Pension is also a member of UN PRI, an independent organization of investors working to promote responsible investment. UN PRI is supported by the UN, but is not part of the UN. UN PRI’s six principles provide guidance on how to achieve a more responsible investment policy.
In addition, we have defined our own exclusion criteria for the companies and activities in which we do not wish to invest.
Our responsible investment policy and exclusion criteria result in us not investing in the following:
- Companies that are sanctioned by the Danish government, the UN or the EU.
- Government bonds in countries where the Danish government, the UN or the EU have imposed financial sanctions against the country or against senior executives in the country.
- Companies that do not comply with AP Pension’s policy and where dialog is ineffective.
- Companies where a turnover share of 5 percent or more relates to tobacco production.
- Companies involved in the production of controversial weapons, such as cluster bombs, anti-personnel mines, nuclear weapons and biological and chemical weapons.
- Companies where a turnover share of 5 percent or more relates to thermal coal extraction, or the company has expansion plans.
- Companies where a turnover share of 25 percent or more relates to energy production using thermal coal, or the company has expansion plans.
- Companies where a share of 5 percent or more of the turnover is related to the extraction of tar sands.
- Companies where a turnover share of 20 percent or more relates to oil and gas upstream activities*
*Upstream activities include exploration, drilling, and extraction of oil and gas
Our external managers are familiar with AP Pension’s responsible and sustainable investment policy. We therefore expect them to follow this when they invest on behalf of AP Pension.
AP Pension systematically screens investments in listed shares and corporate bonds with the help of ESG data providers who specialize in responsible investment. For our unlisted assets, we conduct a pre-investment ESG due diligence process aimed at identifying and mitigating potential adverse impacts on the environment and people. Our ESG requirements are also incorporated as part of our contractual basis with the managers.
As a pension company, we believe it is our duty to exercise our influence, and we also want to contribute to the companies in our portfolio moving in a more responsible direction overall. We do this by exercising “active ownership”, where we monitor companies’ conduct on an ongoing basis and engage in dialog with them to ensure they live up to our policies and principles.
How does AP Pension carry out its sustainable investment work?
From March 2021, EU regulations set requirements for how we in the financial sector inform our customers about sustainability in their pension savings products. The key objective is to create transparency on how financial companies and their investment products promote environmental and social characteristics. Thus, the rules should support consumers in making informed choices about the purchase of investment products based on knowledge about the providers' integration of sustainability considerations in investment processes in general and in their individual products.