Now that people must continue working until they are older, employers are concerned about the ability of their employees to remain physically and mentally fit. This is particularly true for employers in construction and manufacturing, as cited in this 2017 study. These concerns help explain why only 21% of employers want to see the statutory retirement age rise in conjunction with life expectancy. Policy…

People are increasingly confronted with individual choices regarding the financing of their pensions. This requires complex risk and return decisions on various investment products. The chance of making wrong choices can be reduced by offering multiple investment products integrated in an interactive tool. Especially when multiple risky products are offered integrated, people benefit from this: they often choose a mix that fits well with…

During the annual Pension Day on October 31, 26 researchers affiliated with Netspar presented new insights from a large number of research projects that have an impact on pension policy. Scientists from different research disciplines were given the opportunity to exchange knowledge, discuss papers and collect feedback on current research. Topics varied from saving behavior to ‘augmented’ pension communication using Artificial Intelligence, and from…

How do people decide what they spend and what they save after retirement? This study among non-retired people aged 50 to 65 shows that most people make choices and have savings motives that hardly deviate from rational behavior. However, there are major differences between respondents. A substantial minority runs the risk of making choices that are bad for their prosperity in old age. Individual…

Two-thirds of senior employees are confronted with chronic health issues diagnosed by a doctor, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or sleeping problems. Although these problems do not immediately lead to an incapacity for work, they do raise concerns when it comes to working longer. Can part-time pension offer a possible solution in terms of striking a balance between continued participation in the labor force…

Today Ortec Finance, a market-leading provider of technology and solutions for risk and return management, in collaboration with Netspar, releases a report summarizing pension funds’ views on investment and management decisions towards illiquid assets. The key best practice emerging from their study is that investors in illiquid assets should have explicit policies in place to be able to fulfill immediate cash requirements at all…

The Netspar Board of Directors recently awarded grants of €250,000 each to three applications for theme projects, following scientific validation by the Scientific Council and a positive recommendation by the Partner Research Council: Work and disability in old age: restrictions & incentives (Arthur van Soest, TiU) Older individuals and individuals with occupational disability face incentives as well as restrictions that affect working longer or…

Many Dutch people accrue wealth through their pensions and home ownership, but this is largely a passive activity. The wealth piles up and cannot always be mobilized at desired points in their lifetime. Things could be different. The Dutch government encourages more active financial planning on the part of households. The possibilities afforded for taking such financial decisions, however, are still limited and, moreover,…

To facilitate the transition to a new pension contract, the Dutch cabinet wants to make it possible to combine pension rights already accrued with the amounts to be accrued under the new pension contract. At the behest of the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW), Netspar researched the possibility of adopting a uniform method for converting any presently accrued pension rights to…

Due to aging, private insurance for long-term care and annuities are likely to become more important. Up to now, however, interest in such products has been very limited and less than might be expected. Negative selection due to health and longevity inequalities is seen as an important cause of this; if people with an increased risk profile in particular insure themselves, the premiums increase…