Importance and development of individual retirement funds in the Turkish economy, and the comparison with European Union countries

In some countries the pension system and social security concepts has been left to the choice of participants, while in some countries it has become mandatory to enter the system. In this study, a research on pension systems in Europe and Turkey has been conducted. Seven differen tcountries in Europe has been selected and a comparison have been made with Turkey. According to the obtained data, Netherlands has a well-developed individual retirement system. Netherlands has the highest retirement fund rate which is 159.3%. When analyzed the distribution of the total assets of pension funds by country, the largest share is in United Kingdom with the share of 10.6%, and the second one is in Netherlands with the 5.1%. When it comes toTurkey, the rate is 0.19% and is continuing to develop. In terms of real return of the pension funds, Netherlands ranks number one with 15% real return, while Turkey was in negative value in 2013, in 2014 real rate of return became 5.5%. Data from 2014 shows that Netherlands has concentratedits investments in equities while in Turkey investments in cash and deposits came to the for when compared to other countries.