New members of the executive board of Dutch pension asset manager APG will earn less and receive lower severance pay.
The move coincides with the firm’s former asset management CEO Ronald Wuijster receiving more than €1m in severance pay following his departure from the firm on 1 March.
APG announced last week it has “moderated” the remuneration policy for new members of its executive board as of 1 January 2026. From now on, salary levels in the public sector will be taken into account more and salaries in the financial sector will count for less in determining salary levels.
Responding to questions from IPE, APG’s owner, civil service scheme ABP, said it considers the change in policy “necessary for the future”. After the changes, the salaries of APG’s executive board members will be closer to those of the executive directors of ABP.
In 2025, the remuneration for the three members of APG’s executive board (including pension accrual) was between €585,421 (Maarten Blacquière) and €1,943,248 (Wuijster).
By comparison, ABP president Harmen van Wijnen earned €246,000 last year, because ABP has voluntarily conformed to the rule applying to public sector organisations capping salaries at the level of the wage of the Dutch prime minister.
The pay for APG’s future asset management CEO, a role which is currently observed on an interim basis by Alineke van den Berge-Blindenbach, will probably go down the most. The remuneration for this position is currently based on an average for asset managers in the Netherlands and Europe ex-UK. From now on, salaries at (semi-)public institutions will be included in the benchmark at a 50% weighting.
PGGM and MN, the other two large Dutch non-profit pension asset managers, use different benchmarks for executive remuneration.
At PGGM, salaries are “based on those in the financial services sector,” according to a spokesperson. The salary of CEO Edwin Velzel (€631,000 in 2024) is about the same as that of APG CEO Annette Mosman. At MN, the asset manager of pension funds PME and PMT, the benchmark is “the median salary of executives”, resulting in significantly lower salaries. For example, CEO Frits van Bruggen earned only €235,000 in 2024, less than half of what his colleagues at APG and PGGM got.
Severance pay
The fact that Wuijster’s salary at APG was so high last year has to do with his severance pay of more than €1m. According to an APG spokesperson, this compensation had already been agreed upon before the start of Wuijster’s second term as CEO in 2022.
“Ronald Wuijster worked for APG for almost 20 years and, in addition to his temporary contract as CEO, he also had a contract for an indefinite period. In such a situation, it is not uncommon to agree on a termination fee at the start of a temporary appointment as an executive director for when this period expires,” said the spokesperson.
From now on, severance payments will be capped at six months’ salary. Wuijster received a whole year’s salary when he left at the beginning of March. Other pension administrators apply less strict limits on severance payments. At MN, a maximum of one year applies, while at PGGM there are no specific limits for severance pay.
