News update: pension transition and pension fund funding ratios – 2026Q3

Pension transition

Dutch pension funds have until 1 January 2028 to transfer accrued pension entitlements. As at the reference date of 30 September 2026, a total of 42 pension funds had converted to the new pension system, up from 34 at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of the third quarter, pension funds collectively managed assets totalling €1,630 billion. Of this amount, €566 billion was held by funds that had already converted to the new pension system and are subject to the Future of Pensions Act (Wet toekomst pensioenen – Wtp), while €1,064 billion was still managed by funds subject to the Financial Supervision Framework (FTK).

The funding ratio of FTK funds has improved

The average funding ratio of the FTK funds rose to 136.1% in the third quarter of 2026. That is 4.7 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter (Figure 1).

The funding ratio rose in the third quarter partly due to rising share prices and higher interest rates. The Actuarial Association’s new 2026 mortality table, which includes a downward revision to life expectancy, also had a positive effect on the funding ratio. The funding ratio reflects an FTK fund’s current financial position, expressing the ratio between a pension fund’s investments and liabilities.
The policy funding ratio also improved by 2.3 percentage points to 130% (previous quarter: 127.7%). The policy funding ratio is the average of the funding ratios for the past twelve months.

Wtp funds 

Under the FTK, the funding ratio reflects the financial position of the fund as a whole, with both investment performance and changes in liabilities having an impact. Under the Wtp, pensions schemes are based on personal assets from which expected pension benefits are derived. Consequently, the financial position of a Wtp fund cannot be summarised unequivocally by a single indicator such as the funding ratio. As more experience is gained from funds that have converted to a Wtp scheme and more data becomes available, a clearer picture will emerge of which indicators are the most informative and representative.

More information

The calculation of the funding ratio and the policy funding ratio in this news update relates solely to pension funds that have not yet converted to the new system. The invested assets of pension funds that have already transitioned to the new pension system exclude ring-fenced funds. 

We used the following statistics to compile this news item:

• Funding ratio of pension funds (Month)

• Funding ratio of pension funds (Quarter)

• Quarterly balance sheet for pension funds