How I Uncovered What 16,000 Insurance Agents Missed
In Israel’s competitive insurance and pension market, there are over 16,000 licensed insurance agents. Most are honest professionals, but nearly all follow the same model: they focus on monthly contributions and rarely check the accumulated pension savings, the “tzbira.”
Why? Because commissions are based on contributions, not on the total funds already saved.
If a client deposits 2,000 NIS this month, the agent earns.
But if the client has 200,000 NIS sitting in their account? That doesn’t pay the agent anything.
I operate differently.
As someone who specializes in pension-backed loans and offers independent financial consulting, I need to understand not just what clients deposit, but what actually exists in their accounts.
Over the past two years, I encountered multiple clients who requested a loan based on what appeared to be a high pension balance. Their applications were denied.
When I dug deeper, I found the truth: the pension funds hadn’t actually transferred.
In some cases, the money was simply gone—withdrawn, rerouted, or locked without the client's knowledge.
That’s how I uncovered the Slice pension scandal, a financial scheme in which nearly 900 million NIS in pension savings vanished, affecting over 7,500 Israeli savers.
This wasn’t reported to me. It wasn’t leaked by a journalist.
I uncovered it simply by asking the question that no one else did:
Where’s the money?
And I wasn’t guessing. I saw something others didn’t, because I was looking.
Most Israeli insurance agents don’t check balances because the system doesn’t reward them for doing so.
But I do. I get paid to ensure the client’s money is really there.
And what I found was alarming:
Pension transfer approvals that were never completed
Discrepancies between statements and actual holdings
Clients whose financial security was compromised without their knowledge
This scandal isn’t just about one company.
It reveals systemic weaknesses in Israel’s pension regulation, financial literacy, and oversight.
And it proves one thing: when everyone’s incentives are misaligned, fraud can thrive under the radar.
I’m not a hero. I’m just a professional who took his role seriously.
But more importantly, I believe this must be a wake-up call for the entire industry.
Every saver, every policyholder, and every agent should ask:
Is the balance I see on paper really there?
Has the full amount of my pension savings truly transferred?
Am I trusting someone who only checks what pays them a commission?
The answer to those questions might protect your future.
And if your agent doesn’t check your accumulated pension balance, maybe it’s time you did.
Because the most dangerous thing in finance isn’t fraud.
It’s not knowing that the fraud already happened.
Shmuel Fiksman is an Israeli insurance agent and financial consultant who specializes in pension-backed loans and financial consumer protection. He is known for exposing the 2022–2023 Slice pension scandal and advocating for greater transparency in the insurance and pension sector.
