SME
The company that wants to retain talent
“We compete for profiles that large companies win with better packages. A simplified occupational plan lets us offer retirement savings without setting up a structure we cannot sustain.”
Occupational pension plans in Spain (Law 12/2022)
Law 12/2022 relaunched employer-sponsored retirement provision: occupational (employment) pension plans, simplified plans for SMEs, the self-employed and sectors covered by collective agreements, and publicly promoted funds. We help you sponsor, govern and recommend them with legal certainty.
An occupational pension plan for your company or your sector?
Tell us about your workforce, your collective agreement and your goal, and we will tell you which type of plan fits and what governance you will need to set up.
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Services
The second pillar, built properly
Sponsoring an occupational pension plan is a legal project with several moving parts: plan rules, governance, providers and member communications. These are the ones we handle.
Companies
Design and set-up of the occupational plan
We support the sponsoring company from start to finish: choice of plan type (own plan, simplified plan or joining an existing one), plan rules, negotiation with employee representatives, selection of the management company and depositary, and launch.
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Law 12/2022SponsorPlan rulesNegotiation
Governance
Plan governance and compliance
A control committee that actually works, well-run relationships with the management company and depositary, a reviewed investment policy and member disclosure duties met with evidence: a plan that works for years, not just on launch day.
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Control committeeManagement companyDepositaryDisclosure
Compensation
The plan within your compensation policy
We fit the employer contribution into your company’s employment and corporate framework: commitment, internal communication and contractual consistency.
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CompensationCommitment
Advisers
Recommending plans rigorously
If you advise on retirement savings and investment products, your recommendation must be based on the client’s profile and be documented.
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ProfileRecommendation
Members
Member protection
Clear information before joining and throughout the life of the plan: the member is the reference point for every duty in the system.
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TransparencyEnrollment
Providers
Management companies and depositaries
We advise the entities that manage and hold pension funds in custody on their dealings with control committees and sponsors.
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ManagementCustody
Profiles
Who is making moves in workplace pensions
Law 12/2022 put the second pillar on the agenda of four very different players. These are the ones who write to us.
Collective bargaining
The sector that agrees it in its collective agreement
“Our sector-wide collective agreement will include contributions to a simplified plan. We need to understand what is being sponsored, who governs it and what obligations the companies in the sector take on from day one.”
Self-employed
The group that gets organized
“Our association is considering promoting a simplified plan for self-employed workers. The question is practical: what role we play as sponsors and what responsibility that entails.”
Adviser
The professional who recommends retirement savings
“My clients ask me whether to contribute to their company’s plan, to an individual plan or to both. I want to give them sound recommendations in writing, without turning every piece of advice into a risk for me.”
Before you sponsor a plan
Three mistakes that hold back an occupational pension plan
An occupational pension plan is a long-term commitment with its own governance. These design flaws are paid for over years.
Choosing the plan type without analysis: setting up your own plan when the collective agreement is already pushing toward a sector-wide simplified plan (or the other way around) doubles costs and creates conflicts between instruments. The plan type is decided with the employment-law map in front of you.
A control committee for show: if the body that represents the sponsor and members does not meet, does not supervise the management company and does not review the investment policy, the plan’s governance is a fiction with an annual set of minutes.
Overpromising in communications: presenting the plan to the workforce with unqualified messages about returns or specific tax advantages turns internal communication into a source of future complaints.
| Plan type | Sponsor and target members | Key feature |
|---|---|---|
| Individual plan | Sponsored by a financial institution; anyone can join of their own accord. | Third pillar: voluntary private savings, purchased in the retail market. |
| Occupational plan | Sponsored by a company for its employees. | Classic second pillar: linked to the employment relationship, with a control committee and sponsor contributions as agreed. |
| Simplified occupational plan | Promoted by Law 12/2022: it arises from sector-wide collective bargaining or from sponsorship for the self-employed and other groups provided for in the law. | Second pillar with streamlined enrollment: a lighter structure designed for SMEs and self-employed workers. |
Take your company’s retirement provision to the second pillar
We analyze your collective agreement and your workforce, choose the plan type with you (own plan, simplified plan or joining a sector-wide plan), draft the plan rules and leave governance and member disclosure up and running, with evidence.
Frequently asked questions
Occupational plans: questions from companies and advisers
What did Law 12/2022 change in pension plans?
Law 12/2022 refocused the system on the second pillar: retirement provision linked to employment. Its main elements are a general boost to occupational pension plans, the creation of simplified occupational pension plans (designed for SMEs, the self-employed and sectors covered by collective agreements) and publicly promoted pension funds, conceived as open infrastructure to make joining easier.
The underlying message: saving for retirement through your employer should no longer be something only large corporations do.
What is a simplified occupational plan and who is it for?
It is the plan type created by Law 12/2022 to make access to the second pillar cheaper and quicker. In general terms, it can arise from sector-wide collective bargaining (the companies in the sector join a common plan), from sponsorship for self-employed workers through their organizations, and from other cases provided for in the law.
Its appeal lies in the structure: standardized plan rules and streamlined enrollment, so that an SME does not have to build from scratch what a large sponsor takes months to set up.
What are publicly promoted pension funds?
These are publicly promoted occupational pension funds (in Spanish, fondos de pensiones de empleo de promoción pública, or FPEPP), set up by the public sector as an enrollment platform for occupational plans, especially simplified ones. They are managed by private entities selected for that purpose, under a common framework of governance and terms.
For a company or a group, their appeal is practical: lowering the barrier to entering the second pillar by using infrastructure that is already built, on the terms set by the applicable rules.
How is an occupational plan governed? What is the control committee?
The system rests on three pieces: the control committee, which represents the sponsor, members and beneficiaries and supervises how the plan operates; the management company, which administers and invests the fund’s assets; and the depositary, which holds the assets in custody and performs oversight functions.
The control committee is not a formality: it selects and monitors the management company, reviews the investment policy and is answerable for ensuring the plan serves its members. Whether it really works is the best indicator of the plan’s health.
What information must members receive?
As a general rule, members must receive clear information before joining (plan features, contribution and benefit rules, investment policy) and periodically throughout the life of the plan: changes in their vested rights, costs and relevant fund data.
For the sponsor and the control committee, the operating standard is the one we always apply: informing is not enough; you must be able to prove what was communicated, when and to whom. This ties in with the logic of financial consumer protection.
Why should my company sponsor an occupational plan?
Three business reasons:
- Compensation and talent: the plan contribution is a distinctive, valued and long-term part of the compensation package.
- Engagement and workplace climate: few measures signal a lasting relationship with the workforce as clearly.
- Tax treatment: in general terms, the framework provides incentives for employer contributions; the exact amount depends on each case and deserves specific analysis.
We work on how it fits with your compensation policy and your contracts through our legal advice for companies.
I am a financial adviser: what should I watch out for when recommending plans?
Two levels. First, the rigor of the recommendation: a pension plan channels long-term savings with restricted liquidity, so the proposal must be based on the client’s time horizon, situation and goals, documented as in any serious suitability assessment.
Second, the perimeter: explaining the occupational plan of the client’s company, comparing it with alternatives and not promising results or definite tax advantages without analysis. It is worth having the boundary between information, recommendation and regulated advice clearly mapped out.
Does an occupational plan replace each employee’s individual plan?
Not necessarily: they are different pillars and, as a general rule, compatible. The occupational plan channels savings linked to the employment relationship, with sponsor contributions as agreed; the individual plan is each person’s private decision in the retail market.
The best combination depends on contribution limits, goals and each member’s situation, and that is where personalized advice adds real value. What the company should not do is solve that equation for its workforce: its role is to sponsor the plan and inform clearly, not to advise individually.
Practical guide
From decision to a working plan
Sponsoring an occupational plan involves three stages: choosing the right plan type, setting it up with solid documentation and governing it with evidence. This is how we do it.
Diagnosis and plan type
Preliminary map: applicable collective agreement, size and composition of the workforce, contribution budget and compensation goals. This determines the plan type (own plan, simplified plan, or joining a sector-wide or publicly promoted one) and a realistic timeline.
Set-up and providers
Plan rules, negotiation with employee representatives, setting up the control committee and hiring the management company and depositary under clear, comparable mandates.
Communication and steady-state operation
Enrollment information for members with proof of delivery, prudent internal communication, an annual calendar for the control committee and periodic review of the investment policy, costs and the providers’ service.
10-step occupational plan checklist
- Preliminary employment map: review the collective agreement, existing pension commitments and workforce structure before deciding anything.
- Compensation goal: define the role the plan will play in your compensation policy: contribution, groups covered and conditions.
- Choice of plan type: own occupational plan, simplified plan (sector-wide or for the self-employed) or joining a publicly promoted fund: decide based on data.
- Plan rules: draft the rules of the plan: contributions, covered contingencies, benefits, transfers and members’ rights.
- Internal negotiation: arrange the participation of the relevant employee representatives according to the plan type and keep a record of the process.
- Control committee: set up the body with appropriate representation, rules of procedure and a meeting schedule.
- Management company and depositary: select providers using comparable criteria (service, costs, investment) and contracts that let you demand performance and switch.
- Investment policy: approve a policy consistent with the members’ time horizon and review it periodically with the management company.
- Member information: implement enrollment and periodic information with a delivery log: communicating without evidence is the same as not communicating.
- Annual review: assess each year the plan’s operation, costs, compliance with disclosure duties and the performance of the providers hired.
If the plan is part of a broader review of your structure, you may also want to look at the corporate legal framework and our legal advice for companies.
Working glossary
The vocabulary of the second pillar
Nine terms worth mastering before you sit down with management companies, unions or your workforce. They frame any workplace pension project.
Second pillarSystem
Employment-linked retirement provision
Retirement savings channeled through the employment relationship, between the state pension (first pillar) and individual private savings (third).
It is the pillar Law 12/2022 wants to grow.
Law 12/2022Framework
The boost to occupational plans
The law that relaunches occupational pension plans and creates simplified plans and publicly promoted pension funds.
The starting point for this page.
SponsorPlayer
The one who drives the plan
In an occupational plan, the company (or the sector-wide or self-employed vehicle in simplified plans). It sets contributions and the covered group as agreed.
Sponsoring is not advising the workforce.
MemberPlayer
The owner of the savings
The person in whose interest contributions are made and to whom the plan’s vested rights belong.
All information in the system is directed at them.
Simplified planPlan type
The shortcut to the second pillar
A Law 12/2022 plan type with a lighter structure: it arises from sector-wide collective agreements or from sponsorship for the self-employed and other groups provided for in the law.
Designed so that SMEs can take part.
Publicly promoted fundInfrastructure
The common platform
Funds set up by the public sector and managed by selected private entities, as a streamlined route for occupational plans to join.
It lowers the barrier to entry.
Control committeeGovernance
The body that oversees the plan
It represents the sponsor, members and beneficiaries: it supervises the plan, monitors the management company and reviews the investment policy.
Its actual activity is the proof of governance.
Management companyProviders
The one that administers and invests
The entity that manages the pension fund into which the plan is integrated: administration, investment and reporting to the control committee.
It is chosen, monitored and can be replaced.
DepositaryProviders
The one that safeguards and oversees
It holds the fund’s assets in custody and oversees the management company, as a structural counterweight in the system.
The second key to the assets.
Sponsor playbook
The plan’s obligations, with their evidence
Set-up
Plan type chosen after analysis, complete plan rules and a negotiation process suited to the plan type.
Diagnostic report, approved plan rules and minutes of the set-up process.
Control committee
A body set up with proper representation that genuinely meets, decides and supervises.
Internal rules, meeting schedule and minutes with resolutions and follow-up.
Contracted providers
Management company and depositary selected using objective criteria and monitored throughout the relationship.
Documented selection process, contracts and periodic assessments of service and costs.
Member information
Enrollment and periodic information delivered on time and in due form, understandable and free of undue promises.
Reviewed communication templates, delivery records and a working query channel.
Ongoing review
Investment policy, costs and plan operation reviewed regularly, with consequences.
Annual review reports, market comparisons and the decisions taken as a result.
Signs your occupational plan needs a review
Five common symptoms in plans that have been on autopilot for years. Any one of them justifies a tune-up.
- The control committee has not met for over a year, or signs minutes of meetings that never took place.
- No one has compared the management company’s costs and service with the market since it was hired.
- Internal communications promise specific returns or tax advantages that no one has validated legally.
- The sector-wide collective agreement has created a simplified plan and your company has not analyzed how it is affected.
- There is no record of what information each member received on joining.
Related context
Workplace pension provision touches several desks in your organization
An occupational plan cuts across employment, corporate and financial matters: it is compensation, it is governance and it is a savings product with protected members. These pages cover the fronts that usually come into play at the same time when a company enters the second pillar.
Company
Legal advice for companies
The umbrella under which we integrate the plan into your corporate, employment and contractual structure, with no loose ends.
See the service →
ComprehensiveCompany
Structure
Corporate legal framework
Where the pension commitment fits within your company’s map of legal obligations.
See the framework →
ObligationsMap
Members
Financial customer protection
The logic of transparency and fair treatment behind the disclosure duties owed to members and beneficiaries.
See the protection rules →
TransparencyDuties
System
Financial compliance
How to turn the plan’s obligations into a calendar with owners and evidence, integrated into your compliance.
See the program →
CalendarEvidence
If you also advise clients on their savings, see the suitability test and our MiFID II compliance service. And if your interest is the insurance wrapper for savings, take a look at IBIPs and unit-linked products.
Contact
Book a call
Tell us whether you are a company, a collective agreement negotiator, an association of self-employed workers or an adviser, and we will guide you on the plan type and its obligations.
Occupational pension plans: the second pillar after Law 12/2022
Spain has decided to push retirement saving toward the workplace. Law 12/2022 is the centerpiece of that shift: it boosts occupational (employment) pension plans (the second pillar), creates simplified occupational pension plans so that SMEs, self-employed workers and sectors covered by collective agreements can take part without the structural burden of a classic plan, and launches publicly promoted pension funds as an enrollment platform. For companies it is a compensation opportunity; for management companies, depositaries and advisers, a market under construction, with governance and disclosure rules that should be executed well from the outset.
Plan types: own plan, simplified plan and public promotion
The classic occupational plan is sponsored by a company for its workforce, with its own plan rules and control committee. The simplified plan lightens that structure and opens three main routes: sector-wide collective bargaining, which lets the companies in a sector join a common plan; sponsorship for the self-employed through their organizations; and the other cases provided for in the law. Publicly promoted funds, managed by selected private entities, act as host infrastructure. Choosing the plan type requires looking first at the applicable collective agreement and any existing commitments: it is a legal and employment-law analysis, not a form, and we handle it through our legal advice for companies.
Governance: control committee, management company and depositary
The plan sits within an institutional triangle. The control committee represents the interests of the sponsor, members and beneficiaries: it supervises the plan, selects and monitors the providers and reviews the investment policy. The management company administers and invests the fund’s assets; the depositary holds the assets in custody and oversees the management company. The quality of a plan is measured in that triangle: committees that meet and decide, contracts that let you demand performance and change provider, and periodic reviews of costs and performance. Integrating that cycle into the company’s compliance system is a matter of financial compliance.
Member information: communicate without promising
Members must receive clear information before joining and periodically afterwards: plan features, contributions, vested rights and costs, on the terms set by the applicable rules. The practical risk lies in internal communication: launch presentations that promise returns or definite tax advantages create expectations the plan does not control. The prudent rule is twofold: legally reviewed messages and proof of delivery for every communication. It is the same fair-treatment philosophy that underpins financial consumer protection.
For companies and for those who advise
For the company, the occupational plan is a compensation and engagement tool: a distinctive part of the package, with a tax treatment that the framework sets up, in general terms, as an incentive for employer contributions (quantifying it requires case-by-case analysis). For the adviser, the second pillar means long-term recommendations with restricted liquidity: the proposal must be based on the client’s documented profile, with the discipline of the suitability test, and respect the boundary with regulated advice. We cover how the plan fits into the company’s overall structure of obligations on our corporate legal framework page.
For the sponsoring company
Savings, investment and members
Official sources
Key legislation, linked to the official text:
- Law 12/2022 of June 30 on the regulation of the promotion of occupational pension plansBOE · consolidated text
Legislation and links reviewed in .