Results participant survey

At the end of March, we conducted a participant survey to ask for your opinion regarding your preferences for a new pension scheme. This survey showed that a stable pension is very important to you and that you like to share the risks with other (former) participants and pension beneficiaries. A large majority prefers to leave investment choices to the pension fund. The results are very useful when choosing a new pension scheme.

Response

Results participant survey
The survey contained 10 questions; 9 statements and a final question to rank the importance of the statements, with 1 (green arrow) considered most important and 8 (red arrow) least important. Below you can see the outcome of the last question. (See the translation of the statements in the last part of the post).

One statement was about how much risk we should take with your pension money (statement 4). This statement is not ranked and was to give us insight into the desired risk. A large majority opts for an average investment risk.

Below we present the results schematically for each statement. The following legend is used here:

Statement 9: I think the level and stability of my pension benefit is more important than understanding the mechanism of my pension build up.

Statement 3: I think it is desirable that the pension fund maintains a shared buffer that ensures that my pension decreases less in economic bad times, even if this means that my pension would increase less in economic good times (because the shared buffer has to be accumulated again).

Statement 6: I would rather have professionals at the pension fund manage investments for me than having to make my own investment choices.

Statement 1: I think it is important for a good pension scheme that both young and older beneficiaries (including pensioners) share windfalls and setbacks when it comes to investments, and insofar are in solidarity with each other. This is more important to me than being able to make individual investment choices.

Statement 2: I think it is important that people who have the same income will receive the same pension: those who build up a pension in bad economic times should receive the same pension as those who build up a pension in good economic times.

Statement 5: I want to be able to choose how much risk is being taken when investing my pension monies. (Please note: this does not include State Pension (AOW); the AOW is not invested by the pension fund and automatically grows annually with the minimum wage).

Statement 7: I want to be able to choose between a fixed pension benefit or a presumably higher benefit, that is, however, less certain and  at risk to be reduced.

Statement 8: I think it is important to have the option to transfer my pension to an insurer for payout at retirement.

It’s up to the social partners
The social partners (HEINEKEN employer and trade unions) are expected to make a provisional choice before the summer of 2022 regarding the type of pension scheme. This choice is theirs, and not up to the pension fund. They weigh up between a solidary premium arrangement or a flexible premium arrangement. The results of the research are very useful in this regard. After this choice, the pension scheme can be further elaborated. The aim is to switch to the new pension scheme as of 1 January 2025.

Read more about the new pension system on our website.