PFA adopts a very serious approach to the consequences and impact of the coronavirus, and we follow the current recommendations and guidelines from the Danish Health and Medicines Authority and other Danish authorities.
At the same time, it is our highest priority to maintain steady day-to-day business operations and render the best possible service to our customers in these exceptional circumstances, where many employees work from home and need to practice new daily routines.
Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility that some customers will experience longer response time than usual. It may also imply that, for example, pension consultations etc. must be postponed or held in an alternative way.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause, but we will do our best to reduce the impact on our advisory services to our customers in this situation.
The pressure on healthcare services may result in longer waiting times for treatment through your insurance
Public hospitals need to prioritise critically ill patients as well as care for and treat people who are ill because of Covid-19. This could impact the time it takes to get an examination or treatment within the public healthcare service for some time to come.
You will still be able to receive treatment at a private hospital or by a physiotherapist, chiropractor, reflexologist, etc. Several therapists also offer telephone counselling or video consultations if you have physical problems that can be remedied through these options. These costs will still be covered by PFA, just as if it was a completely ordinary physical treatment by your therapist. The counselling and video consultation must be approved by PFA Health Centre before you contact the therapist.
Psychologists also tend to offer sessions over the phone and by video.
If you need to use your insurance or if we are already processing a case for you, you may be asked to submit your health information. Please note that if the information you submit is insufficient, the processing of your case may take longer.
If you have any questions regarding your insurance plans with PFA, please call PFA’s Health Centre at (+45) 70 24 50 01.
How does the market unrest affect pension savings?
As an active asset manager, we do everything possible to protect the customers’ savings during a period with challenging financial markets. From a general perspective, PFA holds a strong financial position which can withstand the impacts of the considerable market unrest.
However, the present situation will, inevitably, also affect PFA’s return and not least customers in PFA Plus, who can see the consequences of the market unrest directly on their savings by way of negative returns.
For some time, PFA has been aware that a major correction could be approaching after a long period with favourable conditions on the financial markets even though the extent and pace of our present findings are not predictable. Accordingly, we have been jostling to secure a suitable position, and we thus succeeded in mitigating some of the significant drops that we have seen, for instance, on the equity markets.
Among other things, this means that we hedged part of the risk against price drops some time ago, and that PFA, generally, holds a large part of more defensive equities, which, throughout this period, have proved not to be quite as seriously affected as other equities. At the same time, PFA’s customers will benefit from our relatively high share of unlisted investments (properties and alternatives), when, especially, the equity markets drop as they do right now.
As a rule, we recommend that customers in the market rate environment stick to their investment strategy, which implies that PFA Plus provides for the expected time of retirement of the individual customer. Inevitably, we will see some large fluctuations from time to time, and therefore it is important that customers see their pension savings in a long-term perspective even though it is not a comfortable to witness periods with negative returns.
When it comes to customers with savings in the average interest rate environment, the impact of the market unrest is not quite the same. This is because we have hedged the portfolio against drops in interest rates, and, in addition, the portfolio contains almost no listed equities.
If you are concerned about your pension savings or in doubt whether you have the right risk profile, please contact your pension adviser or PFA's Advisory Services Centre at (+45) 70 24 50 00. Or you can go through the Investment Guide at My PFA.