The first pension funds have now moved to the new defined contribution (DC) pension system. The professional fund for shipping pilots, Loodsen, the staff fund of pension asset manager APG and PWRI, the sector fund for disabled workers, started accruing pensions in a new DC arrangement.
They will also, in the first half of this year, convert DB accruals to DC capitals. The three funds have now started to bring their investment policies, including their interest rate hedges, in line with this new reality.
Most other pension funds are set to follow the example of the three pioneers in 2026 and 2027. However, this has been thrown in jeopardy as the actuary MP Agnes Joseph finally launched her long-awaited proposal to organise mandatory ballots at the pension fund level on the conversion of defined benefit (DB) pensions to DC capitals.
She formulated her proposal in the form of an amendment to a law that arranges the extension of the deadline for the pension transition from 1 January 2027.
The said law is set to be discussed in Parliament later this month, and will now also include Joseph’s amendment, which she tabled together with her party leader Pieter Omtzigt, a long-time critic of the pension reform, and Henk Vermeer, an MP of government coalition partner BBB.
According to the amendment, pension funds will have to organise a ballot on the question of the conversion of DB accruals to DC capitals with all active and inactive members as well as pensioners eligible to vote. At least four weeks before their planned transition date, pension funds should ask their members whether they want to convert their pensions to DC, according to Joseph’s proposal.
Pensions will only be converted to DC if more than 50% of votes cast are in favour of this. If less than half of votes are in favour, all pensions will remain in DB. Crucially, this will also happen if turnout is lower than 30%.
ABP
As the pension transition approaches, the Netherlands’ largest pension fund ABP told its in-house asset manager APG to shed all its other fiduciary clients by 2030. It said the current structure in which APG also serves construction sector scheme Bpf Bouw, the pension fund for housing corporations Woningcorporaties, and its own staff fund, is too complex.
ABP’s decision is motivated by the fund’s new investment strategy that was published last year, and sees it switch to index-based investing.
For pension administration, APG will continue to work for other pension funds, in order to benefit from economies of scale. APG runs the administrations of the aforementioned four funds, plus the pension funds for cleaners, architects, medical specialists and PWRI.
Items to note:
- The IPE Real Assets Seminar Series 2025 kicks off on 25 March in Amsterdam’s Koninklijke IGC
Tjibbe Hoekstra
IPE Netherlands Correspondent
This news briefing was published earlier in the week. If you would like to receive it regularly, on your ‘IPE profile’, go to ‘My Newsletters‘ and select any from the list.

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