About Pensaro
Information Worth Sitting Down With
Pensaro was built around a single idea: that people deserve clear, organised access to information about retirement systems — without anyone trying to sell them something in the same breath.
Back to HomeOur Story
Started From a Common Frustration
Pensaro grew out of conversations that kept happening in Chiang Mai's professional and expat communities: people approaching retirement age who had worked in Thailand for years, had documents in folders they barely understood, and were not sure what any of it actually meant or where to look for answers.
The founder, having worked in public sector administration in northern Thailand for over a decade, noticed that most public information about the Social Security Fund and workplace pension arrangements was either written in dense Thai regulatory language or summarised so briefly that it raised more questions than it answered.
Pensaro was set up in 2021 to address that gap: not as a financial advisory service, not as a consultancy, but as a structured educational resource. The aim is to give working people and HR teams the vocabulary and reference materials they need to understand how retirement systems are structured — and to approach any further steps, with their own chosen advisers, from a more informed position.
Our Mission
Organising What Is Already Public
Almost all of the information covered in our sessions is already publicly available in government publications, official fund statements, and employer HR guidelines. What Pensaro does is read that material carefully, organise it into a coherent sequence, translate the regulatory language into plain English, and present it in a group setting where questions are welcome.
We do not interpret individual cases. We do not give predictions. We do not tell participants what to do with their money or their records. We describe how the systems work in general terms, and we leave participants with printed reference materials they can return to at any time.
That boundary — staying firmly on the educational side — is not a limitation. It is the design. It means participants can engage with the content freely, without any pressure to act on what they hear.
The People Behind the Sessions
A Small, Consistent Team
Somsak Kittiwat
Founder & Lead Facilitator
Over ten years in Thai public sector administration before founding Pensaro. Leads the orientation seminars and trains the wider facilitation team.
Nattaya Rojanakit
Programme Coordinator
Manages scheduling, participant communications, and the preparation of printed reference packs. Background in educational administration in Chiang Mai.
Priya Laksana
Employer Programme Facilitator
Runs the multi-session employer programmes and develops the HR communication materials. Previously worked in corporate training in Bangkok.
How We Work
Standards We Hold to in Every Session
No Advice, No Sales
Every session is structured so no regulated activity takes place. We inform; we do not advise. No products, services, or third-party referrals are sold or recommended.
Source-Referenced Materials
All reading packs cite the original government or fund publications they draw from. Participants can verify anything in the handout directly against the primary source.
Participant Data Privacy
Contact details collected for session scheduling are stored securely and not passed to any third party. Participants are not added to marketing lists without explicit agreement.
Consistent Facilitation Quality
Sessions follow a structured facilitation guide reviewed before each run. Facilitators do not improvise content or stray into areas outside the programme scope.
Regular Content Review
Reference materials are reviewed and updated when official sources change. Participants from previous sessions can contact us to ask about any updates relevant to what they studied.
Capped Group Sizes
Individual sessions run with a maximum of twelve participants. Employer sessions are capped depending on the HR team's size to ensure every question gets a considered response.
Context & Expertise
Retirement Structures in Thailand: A Complex Landscape, Made Legible
Thailand's retirement income landscape involves several distinct layers: the Social Security Fund (กองทุนประกันสังคม) for private sector employees, the Government Pension Fund (กองทุนบำเหน็จบำนาญข้าราชการ) for civil servants, the National Savings Fund (กองทุนการออมแห่งชาติ) for informal workers, and employer-level provident fund arrangements that vary considerably from one organisation to another.
For most working people — particularly those who have moved between employers, worked in both the public and private sectors, or who are employed by international firms operating in Thailand — understanding which of these structures applies to them, in what proportion, and where to find official documentation is genuinely complicated.
Pensaro's sessions work through this landscape in plain English, using publicly available government publications and fund documentation as the foundation. We cover what each structure is, how contributions generally work, what kinds of documents are associated with each, and how someone might go about organising their own records against these frameworks.
We are based in Chiang Mai because northern Thailand has a distinct professional community — including a significant number of long-term residents from Thailand and abroad — whose needs differ somewhat from those in Bangkok. The rhythm of working life here, the mix of sectors, and the practical questions people have shaped the way our programmes are structured.
Pensaro does not hold financial licences and does not claim to. Our role is educational, and we are straightforward about that boundary in every conversation we have with prospective participants.
Next Step
Curious About a Session?
We are happy to describe any of our programmes in more detail before you make a decision. No obligation — just a straightforward conversation about what would be most useful.
Send an Enquiry