Where do I find my current management fees to plug into the calculator?

Log in to Har HaKesef on the Ministry of Finance website with your tehudat zehut. It displays the exact balance and contribution fees for every pension product in your name.

What return assumption should I use?

A long-run gross return of 5-6% per year is realistic for a typical equity-heavy pension track. Use 4% if you want a conservative stress test.

How accurate is the result?

The calculator gives an order-of-magnitude estimate over multi-decade horizons. Actual outcomes depend on real investment returns and contribution growth, but the relative gap between two fee scenarios is robust.

Should I include severance (pitzuyim) in the monthly contribution?

Yes if you intend to leave the severance portion inside the pension. Most workers do, since withdrawing severance forfeits the tax shelter on it.

Does the calculator account for inflation?

It reports nominal shekels. For an inflation-adjusted view, subtract roughly 2-3 percentage points from your assumed return.

What is a 'meaningful' gap that justifies action?

Any gap above 50,000-100,000 ₪ over the remaining career is worth a retention phone call. Larger gaps may justify switching providers entirely.

Pension Management Fees Calculator — User Guide

The Yesh Cash pension management fees calculator turns the abstract question "how much do my fees cost me?" into a concrete number in shekels. This guide walks through each input and explains how to translate the output into action.

What the Calculator Computes

The calculator simulates two parallel pension accounts over the years remaining until your retirement. Both accounts receive the same monthly contributions and earn the same gross return, but they pay different management fees. The output is the gap in the final accumulated balance between the two scenarios — in other words, exactly how much money the higher-fee scenario sends to the insurance company rather than to your retirement.

Inputs in Order

Current Accumulated Balance The total amount already sitting in your pension fund today. Pull this from your latest doch shnati or from the Har HaKesef portal. If you have several pension accounts, sum them — the calculator can model one consolidated figure.

Monthly Contribution The total monthly inflow to the pension. For an employed worker this is the sum of the employer share (6.5%), the employee share (6%) and the severance share (6%) — approximately 18.5% of monthly gross salary. The exact figures are on your tlush maskoret payslip.

Current Management Fees Two numbers: the balance fee (dmei nihul mi-tzvira) as a percentage per year, and the contribution fee (dmei nihul mi-hafkada) as a percentage of each deposit. Read them from Har HaKesef.

Target Management Fees The fees you might negotiate to. Use realistic numbers — for a comprehensive pension fund in 2026, balance fees as low as 0.15% and contribution fees as low as 1.0-1.5% are achievable for negotiated accounts, while default funds run around 0.22% / 1%.

Expected Annual Return (Gross) A realistic assumption for the gross annual return on the pension fund's investments, before fees. The default of 5-6% reflects the long-run real-plus-inflation return on a diversified equity-heavy track. Lower the assumption to 4% for a more conservative track or for stress-testing.

Years to Retirement Statutory retirement age in Israel is 67 for men. For women born 1960 or later the age is gradually rising to 65. Subtract your current age.

Reading the Output

The headline number is the difference in the final balance between the higher-fee scenario and the lower-fee scenario, both expressed in nominal shekels at retirement. The calculator also shows the cumulative fee saving year by year, so you can see how the gap grows non-linearly — early years see modest differences, but the compounding effect makes the last five years carry most of the total impact.

A second useful metric is the percentage of the higher-fee final balance that the saving represents. If the gap is 8% of the final balance, that is a real and recoverable cost.

What to Do With the Result

If the calculator shows a gap above roughly 100,000 ₪, the negotiation is unambiguously worthwhile — that is more than enough to justify a 20-minute phone call. Steps after running the calculator:

1. Confirm your exact current fees on Har HaKesef. 2. Call the retention desk of your current pension provider and request the lower fees. 3. Get the new fee agreement in writing with the expiration date. 4. If your current provider refuses, request a free transfer (nayadut) to a default fund or to a competitor that has offered better terms. 5. Run the calculator again in a year to check that the new fees are still being applied.