Questions about pensions

Where can I get information about my pension rights?

There is no such thing as a national register of the pension rights of all Dutch citizens. For an overview of your pension rights, you should therefore contact your employer’s pension provider. In most cases, this will be a pension fund, but in some cases it will be an insurer entrusted with the implementation of your employer’s pension scheme. For insurers, similar rules apply as for pension funds.

Have I built up pension rights at all?

Most people participate in a pension scheme via their employer and thus build up pension rights. They are not required to do so, though, for an employer is not obliged to arrange for a a pension scheme for his staff.
Not every individual with a job accrues pension rights. The situation differs from one employer to another, and from one individual to another. Before 1970, for example, female workers did not start to build up pension rights until from the age of 30, and male workers from the age of 25.
To find out how much you have built up in pension rights, ask the pension fund (or insurer) implementing the pension scheme of your current and/or former employer for an overview.

Note: the pension you can build up as an employee is not the same as the old-age state pension Dutch citizens are entitled under the Old Age Pensions Act. The latter pension is also governed by different conditions.

Besides pension funds, can insurers also implement pension schemes?

Yes, besides pension funds, there are also insurers who implement employers’ pension schemes. In the Netherlands, there are about 750 pension funds, including large ones like ABP and PGGM, and some 50 insurers who implement pension schemes.

All pension funds and insurers who implement pension schemes fall under DNB’s supervision.

How can I retrieve the name of my former employer’s pension fund or insurer?

If you no longer know the name of your previous employer’s pension fund or insurer who implemented your previous employer’s pension scheme, DNB’s Informatiedesk may help you find it or inform you of other information sources.

The company I used to work with no longer exists. What am I to do?

You can find the name of the legal successor to the company you used to work for at the Chamber of Commerce. You can obtain information on your pension rights from this (legal) successor. If no legal successor is known, you may contact DNB’s Informatiedesk for further advice.

My pension fund or life insurer no longer exists. What am I to do?

If you do know where your pension rights were built up, but the pension funds or life insurer no longer exists, you should consult the ‘old pension funds file’ or the ‘old life insurers and funeral expenses insurers file’. In these files all (legal) successors are named. Contact DNB’s Informatiedesk if you cannot find what you are looking for.

Can I commute my pension rights?

No, the Pension Act prohibits commutation of pension rights at the request of a former participant.
Pension funds and insurers who implement pension schemes are entitled to commute former participants’ pension rights if they do not exceed EUR 417,74 per year as at the date of retirement. This commutation may not be effected until two years upon termination of the participation. The period of two years has been set to stimulate former participants to transfer their pension rights to their new employer.

The right of commutation enables the pension provider to control the administrative burden, which, compared to the benefits to be expected, is relatively high for small pension entitlements.

Is my pension indexed?

This depends on the pension provider and the pension arrangement. A pension provider, pension funds or insurer is normally under no obligation to adjust your pension to the inflation rate or the wage trend.
Every year, the management board of a pension fund or insurer determine whether and by what percentage they should raise pensions, in other words whether to apply indexation. The percentage may be linked to, for example, the rate at which prices or wages have increased in recent years. Indexation is meant to safeguard your pension’s purchasing power. For if prices go up (inflation) while your pension stays the same (no indexation), your purchasing power will decline. Indexed pensions are either adjusted to the price index or to the wage index.

Pension rights and pension benefits

Indexation may be applied to the pension rights accrued, but also to pension benefits. Indexation arrangements for pension rights may differ from those for benefits. For example, there are pension schemes providing for automatic indexation of pension rights accrued (unconditional indexation) and pension schemes providing for indexation of the pension benefits only if the pension fund’s funs allow so (conditional indexation).

More information about the indexation

Every year, pension providers (pension funds and insurers) must inform their participants of the indexation percentage applied that year. This percentage may vary from one pension provider to another and may be higher one year and lower the next. You can ask you pension provider for the indexation rates applied over a given period.

What is indexation?

Pension rights can be adjusted to the wage trend or inflation. This is called indexation. Whether indexation takes place, and to what extent, usually depends on the pension provider’s financial situation. The indexation to a large degree determines what benefits you will receive when you turn 65. This especially holds for average-pay based schemes, the eventual benefit of which is based on the average salary earned during a career.

Indexation variants

Whether or how your pension is indexed depends on your pension scheme. There are several variants:

pension schemes providing for automatic indexation; i.e. unconditional indexation
pension schemes providing for indexation only if the pension fund has sufficient funds; i.e. conditional indexation
pension schemes not providing for indexation

Can I transfer my pension rights?

New employer

If you change employers, you will usually be required to participate in your new employer’s pension scheme. Your new pension provider will be either a pension fund or an insurer. You may request your new pension provider to accept transfer of the pension rights you built up at your previous employer. You are required to submit this request within six months upon commencement of your participation in the new pension scheme.
In these circumstances, you are permitted to have your pension rights transferred and your former and new pension providers are required to comply with your request.

There are two exceptions to this rule:

your former employment ended before 1994
your request for transfer of pension rights is submitted too late (after six months).

In these situations the pension provider is not obliged to comply with your request for transfer of your pension rights. The pension provider may voluntarily decide to cooperate, though.

Revised pension scheme

If the pension scheme of your employer is being revised, it is often desirable to transfer the value from the old to the new pension scheme, an action referred to as an internal value transfer. We also speak of an internal value transfer when pension rights are interchanged, as is the case, for example, when a partner pension is exchanged for additional retirement benefits.

How can I prevent pension loss when joining a new employer?

When you switch jobs you may become a participant in a new pension fund. The question on such occasions is whether you should transfer your pension rights to the pension provider of your new employer. Which option is the most profitable? The answer to this question depends on the schemes in question, among other things. If your new pension scheme is final-pay based, i.e. if your pension rights are based on your last-earned salary, it practically always pays to transfer your pension entitlements as this way you will prevent pension loss. In the case of average-pay based schemes it is more difficult to determine which solution is best, transferring or not transferring. For to do so, you must compare the (future) indexation applied by your former pension provider with that applied by the new pension provider. It’s quite a job to retrieve this information.
For more information, look at pensioenkijker.nl

Who exercises supervision on my pension fund or insurer?

All pension providers, pension funds and insurers who implement pension schemes, fall under DNB’s supervision. DNB sees to it that your pension savings are handled prudently by these institutions.

Can I transfer my foreign pension rights to the Netherlands?

Yes, you usually can, depending on the pension you have built up within or outside the EU.

Within the EU

You can transfer pension rights to the Netherlands if you have built up pension entitlements with a pension provider of an EU Member State. If such is the case, a Dutch pension provider is obliged to cooperate in the transfer of foreign pension rights to the Netherlands, unless the foreign regulations conflict with the Dutch regulations regarding the transfer of pension rights.

Outside the EU

If you have built up pension rights with an institution outside the Netherlands, the Dutch pension provider is not obliged to cooperate in their transfer. The Dutch pension provider, pension fund or insurer, is authorised to cooperate, though.

Can I transfer my pension rights to another country?

Yes, you usually can, depending on whether the country in question is an EU Member State or not.

Within the EU

You can transfer your pension rights to any pension provider, pension fund or insurer in the EU. You can do so regardless of whether your new employer is Dutch or a foreign company, as long as your pension provider is based in the EU. In that case, you will have just as much right to transfer your pension rights as you have to switch pension providers within the Netherlands. A transfer of your pension rights is governed by the usual conditions. An additional requirement is that the possibilities for commutation of your pension rights are not wider than under the Pension Act.

Outside the EU

The transfer of pension rights to pension providers outside the EU is governed by the following requirements, among others:

the foreign institution or insurer is subject to supervision of the authorities of the home country.
either the capital of the foreign institution in question is legally segregated from that of the employer or a special preference arrangement is in place for the benefit of persons eligible for a pension.

Dutch pension funds must always notify DNB of a request for transfer of pension benefits to an institution established outside the EU.

I will be turning 65 soon, but still haven’t heard anything from the pension funds of my former employer(s).

You yourself must contact the pension fund or insurer who implements the pension scheme, for they are not obliged to inform you.

Where should I go, if I have a complaint about a pension fund?

If you have a complaint about a financial institution, you should first try and settle the matter with the institution itself. As a first step, you should enquire after the firm’s complaints procedure. Should you fail to reach agreement with your bank, insurer or pension fund, the best thing to do is probably to take the matter to the relevant arbitration board. For more information, see the flyer ‘U heeft een klacht?’ (You have a complaint?).

It is not among DNB’s supervisory duties to settle customer disputes. Even so, DNB likes to be told about complaints, because they can be of use in making the rules and requirements that we need to exercise adequate supervision of financial institutions. We would appreciate it if you could mail a copy of your complaint by unstamped letter to:

De Nederlandsche Bank N.V.
Informatiedesk
Antwoordnummer 2670
1000 PA Amsterdam

Where can I get more information about pensions?

You can turn to DNB’s Informatiedesk for assistance in retrieving information about your pension rights. You may also email or call this desk for more general questions about pensions, pension funds and insurers.

Wordt mijn pensioen gecorrigeerd voor inflatie

Jaarlijks stijgen de prijzen. Dit noemen we inflatie. Wanneer de prijzen stijgen en de hoogte van uw pensioen niet, kunt u minder kopen. Om dit te voorkomen worden de meeste pensioenen jaarlijks verhoogd met een bepaald percentage, ook wel indexatie genoemd. Dit percentage is bijvoorbeeld gekoppeld aan de mate waarin de prijzen of de lonen in het afgelopen jaar zijn gestegen.

Wordt uw pensioen aangepast aan het niveau van de prijzen dan spreekt men van een waardevast pensioen. Is uw pensioen gekoppeld aan de loonontwikkelingen dan spreekt men van een welvaartsvast pensioen.

Indexatie is er dus op gericht de koopkracht van uw pensioen te behouden. Of en hoe uw pensioen wordt geïndexeerd is afhankelijk van wat er in uw pensioenregeling staat. Er zijn verschillende mogelijkheden:

pensioenregelingen waarbij indexatie altijd plaatsvindt, men spreekt dan over onvoorwaardelijke indexatie
pensioenregelingen waarbij alleen wordt geïndexeerd als het pensioenfonds over voldoende geld beschikt, ook wel voorwaardelijke indexatie genoemd
pensioenregelingen waarbij geen indexatie plaatsvindt

Indexatie kan plaatsvinden over opgebouwde pensioenaanspraken, maar ook over pensioenuitkeringen. Voor beide kunnen bovendien verschillende indexatieafspraken gelden. Zo zijn er bijvoorbeeld pensioenenregelingen waarbij de opgebouwde pensioenaanspraken altijd worden geïndexeerd (onvoorwaardelijke indexatie) en de pensioenuitkeringen alleen wanneer de middelen van een pensioenfonds dat toelaten (voorwaardelijke indexatie).