NETHERLANDS- The Dutch arm of consultant Buck Heissmann has merged with the Houten-based actuarial consultants ConAct in a deal that doubles Buck Heissmann’s workforce to around twenty.

The new entity, which is to go under the Buck Heissmann name, will offer actuarial services, outsourcing services for pension administration and, for those managing their schemes in house, accounting and IT solutions.

Buck Heissmann is a joint venture between Buck consultants in the US and Heissmann in Germany. It entered the Dutch market ten years ago when Henk van Embden opened an office in Gouda and it now specialises in the advisory and actuarial sectors of the business.

ConAct, founded and run by Evert van Ling and Henk van der Hoek, is based in Houten and specialises in the administration and operational side of the pensions industry.

Van Embden, van Ling and van der Hoek will run the new company although each has their own area to oversee. Van Embden will look after the marketing and international business, van Ling will run the administration, finance and IT element of the business while van der Hoek will see to personnel. All three will work on the actuarial consulting side of the business.

Dutch funds are demanding similar services from their consultants but there are areas in which there is great scope for growth and Buck Heissmann is doubling its workforce in the Netherlands over the next few years.

Says Van Embden: “our government is issuing so much legislation and I think we are going the same way as the UK in that you have so much legislation, so complex and changing so quickly that for employers, it becomes more and more difficult to explain to their employees what a pension plan is and that makes the employee benefit consulting business a huge business.”

Membership of the Buck Heissmann network gives the Dutch entity access to sixty offices in 17 countries.


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