Large pension funds have seen their financial position improve recently. This is partly due to favorable investments. It is still unclear whether this also means that pensions can be increased at the end of the year.
At the beginning of this year, many funds once again increased pension benefits after years. Some pensioners even received more than 10 percent. This was because the funds were in a better financial position than in previous years.
It is still unclear whether there will be another increase at the end of this year. Many funds only decide on this in the autumn. They mainly look at the policy funding ratio. This says something about whether funds have enough cash to meet their future obligations.
This indicator must be at least 105 percent by the end of the year. The five largest funds – civil servants’ fund ABP, healthcare fund PFZW, metal funds PME and PMT and building fund bpfBOUW – were above that at the end of June. Most even amply. Only PMT is not that far off, with 108.5 percent.
However, the funds have not yet reported anything about a possible new increase. Another factor in this is that the Netherlands switched to a new pension system at the beginning of this month. This has quite a lot of consequences for them and in order to get through this properly, the pension managers want to keep some extra reserves. This may make them more cautious about increasing pensions again.
The five major pension funds have seen their assets grow in recent months. This was mainly due to favorable returns on investments. They also benefited from rising interest rates. This ensures that they have to set aside less money now for expenses they have in the future.
2023-07-19 22:06:38
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