Pension fund insurance cover: disability, survivors, and what to check

The annual pension statement arrives. You open it, look for the big number, the balance, and feel a small relief or a small disappointment. You turn the page. There's a table headed "insurance cover," a few lines, a few amounts. Your eyes skim it, and your thumb is already on the next page.

That's completely understandable. Who wants to think about disability or death on a Tuesday evening, between the laundry and the homework?

But that page you skip so quickly says something many families don't know: how much money would come into the house each month if something happened. And as long as you don't know that, it's very hard to tell whether your other policies overlap it, complement it, or leave a gap.

Insurance hidden inside savings

Most people think of their pension fund as savings for later life. That's true, but it isn't the whole story. In a comprehensive new pension fund (keren pensia makifa), part of every deposit isn't saved; it buys insurance: a monthly pension if you can't work because of illness or injury, and a monthly pension for your partner and children if you're no longer there.

This cover doesn't come as a separate policy. No agent calls about it, and it has no line of its own in the bank account. It's presented as part of the savings, so it simply doesn't register as insurance. That's not inattention on your part; it's how the information is laid out.

That produces two opposite mistakes. Some people buy another policy because "we don't have insurance." Others are sure that "we've got life insurance, so we're covered," without knowing how much, or for what.

Why that page is hard to stop on

Part of you wants to know the family is protected: that if something happened, the household would keep running, and there'd be enough to live on.

Part of you doesn't want to open it. Thinking about disability or death is heavy. And there's a quieter fear too: finding out you've paid for duplicate cover for years, or that a track was chosen without you knowing. Assuming "we're covered" buys calm without having to check.

Both want calm. The difference is where it comes from: the assumption lends it to you, and the number lets you own it.

What changes the cover

Three main things shape those two numbers:

• The insurance track. A comprehensive new pension fund offers different insurance tracks, and they shift the balance between savings and cover: more cover means less saving, and the other way round. Sometimes the track was set as a default, without anyone choosing it consciously.
• Continuous deposits. The cover depends on deposits coming in. Once they stop, when you change jobs or take a long leave, cover continues only for a limited period, and the cover's cost during that time comes out of the savings. How long, and what the options are for extending it, is a question for your fund.
• Family status. Survivors' cover is tied to whether there's a partner and children, and the fund's rules also address the case where there aren't. Check the conditions and options with your fund and on Kol Zchut, the public rights guide.

The full rules are set by the Capital Market Authority's uniform regulations for comprehensive new pension funds, and Kol Zchut explains them under disability pension, survivors' pension and waiving survivors' cover. These rules are as of September 2026 and may change.

Before the cover itself: changing an insurance track, waiving cover or buying a policy is pension or insurance advice when it's given to a specific person. This article explains how the cover works; a licensed pension adviser can look at your own case.

What do you know today about the cover in your fund

If you couldn't work from tomorrow, how much would your fund pay you each month?

Pick the answer closest to yours. There is no wrong one.

I know the amount in shekelsI have a rough idea, not a numberI didn't know my fund had cover like thisI'm not even sure which fund I'm in

Two numbers on one page

The aim is modest: two numbers from the statement, the disability pension and the survivors' pension, written next to your list of policies. No imagining disasters. No switching tracks under pressure. Nothing cancelled or bought this week.

Disability cover and survivors' pension: from the statement's table to a licensed adviser

Step 1: the two numbers on the statement. Open the annual statement, find the cover table, and write down the monthly disability pension and the monthly survivors' pension. In shekels, not percentages. If there are two partners, each does it from their own statement.

Step 2: what shapes them. Next to each number, write which insurance track you're in, if the statement shows it, and the family status the fund has on record. If anything is unclear, that's a question for the fund.

Step 3: next to the private policies. Put the page beside the household's list of insurance: life cover, loss of earning capacity, whatever you have. Har HaBituach, the Capital Market Authority's insurance search, shows some of your private policies; the site says which kinds it covers and which it doesn't. Put a question mark beside each one: overlapping? Complementing? This isn't about right or wrong, only about asking.

Step 4: a conversation with a licensed adviser, numbers in hand. With that page, a conversation with a licensed pension or insurance adviser gets precise. The Capital Market Authority's Pension-Net shows data on the funds themselves. What to do about an overlap or a gap is something people describe checking with a licensed adviser. The decision is yours.

Your pension-cover page

• I found the cover table on the annual statement
• I wrote down the monthly disability pension in shekels
• I wrote down the monthly survivors' pension in shekels
• I noted which insurance track I'm in, if it's shown
• I put the page next to the household's list of insurance

0 of 5 done

In AlphaHome: the pension page holds each fund's balance and its two fee rates, by owner, and an "Insurance" category with recurring fixed expenses holds the private policies. So both lists sit in one place before the conversation. The page has no insurance-cover field, so the two numbers go on paper; AlphaHome doesn't calculate cover and doesn't give advice.

When the check raises questions

You find the track was chosen without your knowing. That happens to many people, and often it was the default. How to read it: it's information, not blame. What to do today: write the question down; don't switch under pressure. What to change: take the question into a conversation with a licensed adviser.

There was a stretch without deposits. A job change, a long leave, a gap between jobs. How to read it: a break in deposits is a normal part of life; the only question is how long the cover holds after it. What to do today: ask the fund how long cover lasts after deposits stop, and what the options are. What to change: next time a break is planned, ask that question in advance.

Pension fund insurance cover: knowing it in shekels

Without opening that page, the next policy gets bought on the same assumption, and the same doubt stays.

People who know what's inside their pension ask a sharper question about every new policy. Not "do I need insurance?" but "what does this add to what I already have?"

This doesn't require you to become an expert. It requires one page you don't skip. From there, the calm comes from the number, not the assumption.

To go further, the household insurance map gathers every policy in one place, and the annual pension report walks through the rest of the statement.

This week: open your pension fund's annual statement, write down the disability pension and the survivors' pension on a page, and put it next to your list of insurance.