Only 60% of the monthly premiums paid for an investment mortgage is actually used to buy shares and other investments, the Financieele Dagblad reports this morning. Quoting unpublished research by the insurance assocation VvV, the paper says 40 cents of every euro paid towards a beleggingshypotheek goes on life insurance premiums, bank costs and agency fees.

By comparison, the paper points out that traditional investment fund managers make charges of between 1% and 2% of the invested cash.
The financial services watchdog AFM has been highly critical of a number of investment-based products put on the market by insurance companies in recent months. It says these products are often complex and relatively expensive.