Expenses and prices

Direct expenses
Direct expenses are administrative expenses, which, among other things, cover general service and advisory services. These expenses are deducted from your payments regularly.

Expenses related to plans without payments
The annual expenses amount to DKK 888.

Expenses related to plans in the payout phase
The annual expenses amount to DKK 888.

Payout of endowment pension costs DKK 0 if it is paid out as a lump sum.

Payout of endowment pension costs DKK 0 if it is split into several payouts.

One-time expenses
Some pension plan changes are not covered by the direct expenses, and you therefore need to pay for them separately.

Expenses in connection with a transfer to another supplier, DKK 2,095. In certain cases, a surrender charge may also apply. Expenses in connection with payout of savings before the agreed date (surrender), DKK 2,095. A flat-rate tax of 60 % must also be paid to the Danish State.

Special advisory services, DKK 1,000.

Expenses related to changes of investment profiles
Generally, you can change the investment of your savings at My PFA without any extra charges if you make regular payments to your pension plan. However, in future you will be liable to pay a fee if you change investment profile, change investment mix in PFA Optional, change your share in PFA Climate Plus or change between investment concepts more than three times within the same month. The fee amounts to 0.5 per cent of the converted savings plan, exclusive of PFA CustomerCapital, and will be charged for each following change you make the same month.

Single payments transferred from another pension supplier are not subject to any expenses provided that the transfer is made within the Danish Job Change Agreement or the transfer is agreed as part of a pension agreement.

Indirect expenses
Indirect expenses are, among other things, expenses that are payable directly by the funds in which your savings are invested – both in PFA Invests, PFA Optional and You Invest. Indirect expenses are deducted from the return, and they will not appear from the pension summary at My PFA, but will be included in the annual expenses in DKK. In addition to the administrative expenses charged by the fund managers, the expenses also include current trade expenses and PFA’s own investment expenses etc. These expenses are generally referred to as investment expenses.

The investment expenses related to the investment profiles in PFA Invests depend on which investment profile you have selected and the number of years until you retire. In the table below, you can see the expected expenses for investment profiles A – D with respectively 30, 15, 5 and 0 years until retirement.

The investment expenses in PFA Optional depend on which distribution between the two funds High-risk (PFA Høj Risiko) and Low-risk (PFA Lav Risiko) you have selected. In the table, you can see the expected annual expenses in per cent for the two funds High-risk and Low-risk as well as 5 examples of distributions with 100 %, 75 %, 50 %, 25 % and 0 % in the High-risk fund, respectively.


In You Invest, the investment expenses also depend on your investment selections. When you invest your payments, select new funds or change the way your savings are invested among the funds, you pay a spread fee.

See the indirect expenses and spread of the funds in You Invest 

Expenses in general
The rates may be changed effective as from the beginning of the coming month.
Special rules apply to plans serviced by brokers.

At My PFA, you can see the cost of your pension plan, the direct and indirect expenses as well as the total annual expenses in per cent and DKK.

Direct expenses
Direct expenses are administrative expenses, which, among other things, cover general service and advisory services. These expenses are deducted from your payments regularly.

The direct expenses when making payments to a standard company pension plan after deduction of labour market contribution (pension plan with insurance cover and/or payment protection cover (premium waiver)).

The direct expenses when making payments to an individually established pension plan after deduction of labour market contribution (pension plan with insurance cover and/or payment protection cover (premium waiver)).


The minimum monthly expenses amount to DKK 74.

Expenses related to plans without payments (paid-up policies)
Monthly expenses amount to DKK 74 and 0.0125 % of the deposit, however, maximum DKK 375. 

Expenses on payout
The expenses related to regular pension payouts amount to 2 % of the payout, however, minimum DKK 37 and maximum DKK 74 per month, and 0.0125 % of the deposit, however, maximum DKK 375. 
- Payout of endowment pension costs DKK 0 if it is paid out as a lump sum.
- Payout of endowment pension costs DKK 0 if it is split into several payouts.

One-time expenses
Some pension plan changes are not covered by the direct expenses, and you therefore need to pay for them separately.
- Expenses in connection with a transfer to another supplier, DKK 2,095. In certain cases, a surrender charge may also apply.
- Expenses in connection with payout of savings before the agreed date (surrender), DKK 2,095. A flat-rate tax of 60 % must also be paid to the Danish State.
- Expenses related to especially cost-consuming calculations, DKK 2,095.

Indirect expenses
Among other things, the indirect expenses cover the investment expenses, which you pay through the investment return.

Expenses in general
The rates may be changed effective as from the following month.
Special rules apply to plans serviced by brokers.

Since 2008, the individual PFA customer has been able to view all of his or her annual expenses in both DKK and per cent in the annual survey. As from 2011, the method has been described in detail and published in PFA’s description of methods. Please note that the annual cost report and the description of methods is available in Danish only. The cost report has beenaudited by an external auditor.

Read PFA's cost report (in Danish only)

The expenses are calculated in the same way in all companies, and all expenses are included in the calculations – regardless of what the expense is called and where the expense belongs. A modern pension plan includes savings, insurance cover and advisory services, and, with complete openness regarding expenses, the individual cus-tomer is able to choose the most competitive offer on the market.

The expenses are calculated per customer per plan in the form of two simple key figures:
Annual expenses in DKK
Annual expenses in per cent.

This means that the customer may view his or her expenses as a plain amount in DKK, and, for comparison, the customer may view the expense level in proportion to the size of the savings.

The annual expenses in DKK show the price of the pension savings
The annual expenses in DKK show the expenses in connection with having a savings plan with a pension company and may thus be described as the price of a savings plan. The annual expenses in DKK include all traditional expenses, such as rent, administration and IT as well as payment to the capital base and all expenses related to investments. Regardless of whether the expenses are paid by PFA or someone else.

However, it is important to be aware that the price is not the only thing that matters when choosing a pension plan. It is important to look at the total value creation in the form of return, general service and advisory services.

The expenses are known – at the end of the year
The customers may view their annual expenses in DKK and per cent by logging on to My PFA or by receiving an annual survey by post. The actual expenses in connection with average interest rate plans in 2022 are calculated after the completion of PFA's annual report and are then informed to the customers in the spring 2023. Customers with market rate plans in PFA Plus may view their expenses daily and their annual expenses in per cent just after the turn of the year.

Expense meter provides competition
In order to help corporate customers make a qualified decision when choosing a new pension supplier, PFA has an expense meter on its website just like the other Danish pension companies.

Try the expense meter (in Danish only)

Overall, the expense meter applies the same method as the one used in the annual survey, and it gives an estimate of the expense level in 2022 and onwards. This means that it is well-suited for comparing price levels across companies. Subsequently, a private customer or a corporate customer may request a specific quotation with the exact prices.

Transparent expenses also make it possible to compare savings across investment environments. It provides customers with a new tool for their decision-making when they know the annual expenses in per cent in connection with a pension plan and in connection with the investment of cash and cash equivalents.

New insight into investment expenses
Traditionally, expenses in connection with investments have lacked transparency. The investors’ focus has been on the net return and thus on the amount of money the investors actually receive. It has been pioneering work in the field of investments to split the net return into a gross return and the related expenses. This is information which many external funds do not provide at all.

It is important to make it clear that all investment expenses have always been deducted from the return. This means that when the investment expenses are made visible, the return before deduction of investment expenses will be proportionally higher. Thus, the individual customer will receive the same return as before.

This means that the pension industry has made the actual expenses in connection with investments visible. Paradoxically, this means that the gross return has increased. Ultimately, increased transparency and insight into this area is in the investors’ interest and therefore also an advantage for the pension customers.

Make pension easier to understand
The expenses which the customers are paying have been made very simple with the key figures, annual expenses in DKK and per cent. Of course, the underlying calcula-tion is complex and will most likely not serve as enjoyable reading for most customers, however, it is fully accessible to anyone interested in PFA’s description of methods. Please note that the description of methods is available in Danish only.

Read PFA's annual cost report (in Danish only)

The purpose of simple key figures is of course to make them specific and usable. When most people see the pension industry as being complicated, it is often not because of a lack of information but because of too much information.

PFA focuses on making pension more simple and easy to understand, and we believe that the key to achieve this is to simplify and layer information in order to make it relevant for the individual customer. In this way, the fully detailed information is of course accessible at our website and at My PFA for the detail-oriented customer.

Market rate – PFA Plus – and expenses
PFA Plus is PFA’s modern pension product and is a so-called life cycle product in which each individual customer’s deposit is invested according to the customer’s age and selected risk profile. There are no unallocated reserves. All customers receive the full return for the year and the deposit comprises the full value of the savings plan, neither more nor less.

As it can be seen below, the total expenses in 2022 in market rate are a little higher than average interest rate. Generally, the expenses are higher in average interest rate as operational risk charge is paid here due to the guaranteed benefits.  

The administrative expenses are highest for market rate plans as it is a younger port-folio in comparison with the average interest rate. As the premium payments (of which the administrative expenses primarily are paid) make up for a bigger proportion compared to the savings, the expense will also be biggest when measured compared to the savings.

Most expenses are, however, connected to investing. Here, the market rate is more expensive than the average interest rate, as there is room for more risk assets in market rate, and these are meanwhile connected to the highest investment expenses.

Annual expenses in per cent for 2023
The table below shows the annual expenses in per cent in PFA for both market rate savings and average interest rate savings.