Rumors circulated in the media that several pension funds would not pay a survivor’s pension if members of the coronavirus die. We would like to emphasize that this is not the case with the HPF. If a (former) participant dies from the consequences of the corona virus, we will pay the survivor’s pension as usual. Even if the deceased participant has been in a risk area.
Furthermore, it is possible that the average life expectancy will decrease due to the many deaths in our country. This does not yet have any direct consequences for pensions.
It is possible that, due to the many corona deaths, the average life expectancy will decrease. Life expectancy and mortality rates influence, among other things, the determination of the retirement age and the level of the premium. The Royal Dutch Actuarial Society has published a first message about this on its website.
At the moment, too little data is available to make any statements about the long-term consequences of the corona crisis on life expectancy.
It goes without saying that the effect of the economic problems caused by the corona crisis is many times greater than the effect of the possibly changing life expectancy.
The Accountability Council (AC) at the Heineken Pension Fund consists of representatives of employees, employers and pensioners. Currently there is a vacancy in the AC for a member on behalf of the employees. The vacancy arose because the AC member is nominated as a member of the board of the Heineken Pension Fund. The documentation is in Dutch. Therefore it is important that Dutch can be read/understood.
The import tariffs announced by the United States caused declines on the stock markets. Many reports about this appeared in the news last week. We can imagine this raises questions.
In 2024, we will have achieved a 12.6% return by investing the pension assets. With this result, we are in the top three of the more than 170 pension funds in the Netherlands that were surveyed by consultants from OverRendement and Bell.