The EIP/IPT in ETFs at Easyvest: looking back on an offering launched in 2017

Easyvest has offered the EIP/IPT in index management (ETF) since 2017. A look back at the context of this launch: the gap in the Belgian market at the time, how we filled it, and the pricing strategy we've followed since the launch.

2016-2017: An EIP/IPT Market in need of a revamp

Easyvest was founded in Brussels in 2016 by Matthieu Remy and Corentin Scavée, based on a simple conviction: over the long term, index investing outperforms active management. We first applied this conviction to individual investing, before expanding it in 2017 to a product that had largely remained on the fringes of Belgian financial innovation: the EIP/IPT.

At the time, the EIP/IPT, a life insurance policy or supplemental pension plan purchased by a company for the benefit of its executive, funded by fully tax-deductible premiums, was sold almost exclusively as Branch 21 policies with guaranteed returns.

For an executive director who accumulates assets over 15, 20, or 25 years before retirement, this difference in returns translates into tens or even hundreds of thousands of euros in final capital. Index-based ETF investing already existed for traditional retirement savings plans or individual investments in Belgium, but it was virtually absent from the EIP. We chose to fill this gap.

Index management applied to the EIP/IPT

Our philosophy rests on a simple but important observation: it is impossible to beat the market over the long term. Rather than looking for the “right” stock or the “right” active manager, we prefer to follow the market as a whole through diversified ETFs. This is the same logic we applied to the supplemental pension plan through EIP/IPT as early as 2017.

This approach is grounded in the modern portfolio theory of Harry Markowitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. It is not the most spectacular approach, but over the long term, it is the one that has proven itself.

What's more, ETFs carry costs well below those of the traditional active funds used by most insurers. A 1% reduction in fees can mean up to 500.000€ more in capital over 40 years.

For optimal diversification, the capital in our EIP/IPT is invested in a global equities ETF, for long-term growth, and a European government bonds ETF, for stability and decorrelation.

Full transparency: the director has access at all times to their portfolio's composition and real-time returns, with no hidden fees.

The first EIP/IPT contracts in ETF management at Easyvest were signed in 2017, with directors already familiar with index investing in their personal savings and looking for the same consistency in their company pension.

A pricing logic designed from the outset

Since 2017, our pricing structure has been based on a simple principle: charging a transparent percentage of assets under management, with no hidden entry or exit fees in the product. This same approach currently translates to all-inclusive management fees ranging from 0.9% to 1.5% per year, excluding statutory taxes of 4.4% on premium payments and approximately 15.85% on the principal at statutory retirement age in, contrast to the often far less transparent fee structures of traditional insurers offering actively managed EIP contracts.

Transferring your old EIP/IPT reserves to Easyvest

A director who has already built up EIP/IPT reserves elsewhere doesn't need to wait for their next contract to benefit from index management. In principle, these reserves can be transferred into an EIP/IPT contract at Easyvest without starting from scratch; this is one of the most common steps taken by directors who join us today.

Nearly ten years on

From 2017 to 2026, index management has gone from exception to standard across a growing share of Belgian savings. Easyvest remains, for the CIPA as for the rest of its offering, true to the principle that drove its 2017 launch: applying to a company director's pension the same rigour and the same transparency as the best investment portfolios.