Discount Bank has launched Smart Future, an innovative digital platform designed to help customers plan and manage their pension savings and insurance. The service, available free of charge through the bank’s app, is the first of its kind within Israel’s banking system and aims to make the complex world of pensions more accessible, transparent, and actionable.
Smart Future concentrates all pension and insurance information in one place, providing customers with a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date overview of their retirement status. The platform pulls data from Israel’s Pension Clearing House, enabling users to better understand their current financial situation and make more informed decisions to improve their financial future once they reach retirement.
The platform includes an advanced retirement simulator. The tool projects expected retirement income based on the user’s age, accumulated pension savings, and estimated retirement age. It also allows users to incorporate additional income sources, such as securities portfolios, real estate holdings, employer-sponsored tax-exempt investment funds, and other savings vehicles, to assess their overall financial outlook. If a gap is identified between expected and desired retirement income, the system illustrates how it can be bridged through additional monthly savings.
Beyond projections, Smart Future provides personalized insights and alerts aimed at protecting and enhancing pension savings. Customers receive notifications about management fees that are high relative to market norms, potential gaps in insurance coverage for disability or loss of work capacity, and outdated beneficiary details. These factors, often overlooked for years, can significantly impact an individual’s financial security and quality of life in retirement.
Avi Levi, CEO of Discount Bank, said: “The launch of Smart Future reflects our commitment to making the complex world of finance more accessible to our clients. It provides clear, simple, and objective information, along with practical tools to plan for the future and strengthen financial resilience, especially in retirement.”
The launch follows a study commissioned by Discount and conducted by Shiluv I2R in November 2025 among 505 Israeli adults aged 21–67. The findings highlight widespread confusion and disengagement around pensions:
- 49% of respondents say they do not fully understand their pension savings
- 56% do not know the level of risk in which their pension funds are invested
- 30% do not know, or cannot recall, who their designated beneficiaries are
- About half are unaware of the management fees they are paying
- 69% review their pension statements only once every six months or less
At the same time, 81% expressed a desire to better understand their pension savings. While 55% reported receiving pension advice in the past three years, mainly from independent agents, 45% had not sought any professional guidance. Among those who did not, 35% said they felt the issue was “not important enough,” citing complexity and procrastination as key barriers.
The survey also revealed that 63% of respondents expect their income to decline upon retirement, and 22% are unable to estimate their financial situation at all. These findings underscore the need for accessible digital tools that simplify pension planning and encourage proactive engagement.
* Registration with the Pension Clearing House requires customers to provide credit card details solely for verification purposes, including a temporary authorization of NIS 10 for up to 24 hours, without an actual charge.