The same pension, different scripts: mental models and trust in Türkiye’s BES

Purpose This paper aims to explain distrust in Türkiye’s Individual Pension System (BES) as a problem of cognitive coordination, asking which mental models are salient among field actors and how their collisions erode trust. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on 16 semi-structured interviews with pension-company, portfolio-management and regulatory professionals, conducted between August 2019 and April 2020. Data were analysed abductively through thematic analysis, using shared mental models as a sensitising concept. Findings Four competing models structure the field: the BES as a long-term retirement plan, high-return investment, national economic instrument and short-term piggy bank. Distrust emerges when these models collide at point of sale, auto-enrolment and early withdrawal. Research limitations/implications Based on one case and professional informants, this study offers analytic rather than statistical generalisation. Participant-side models are inferred, and the interviews pre-date Türkiye’s post-2021 inflationary regime. Practical implications Firms and regulators should align sales, onboarding, disclosure and service around a consistent retirement purpose while reducing deposit-style comparisons and acquisition-driven incentives. Social implications Misaligned mental models in private pension fields generate distrust that falls disproportionately on liquidity-constrained households, with downstream consequences for retirement adequacy, intergenerational fragility and confidence in long-term financial institutions in volatile emerging-market economies. Originality/value This paper reframes pension trust as a problem of cognitive alignment and extends shared mental models theory to a loosely coupled institutional field.