Social changes in terms of life expectancy, the labor market, technology, and greater individual responsibility for financial and other decisions are forcing the pension industry to transition from focusing on products to focusing on individuals. Meanwhile, meeting individual needs can also produce considerable economic gains, as Casper van Ewijk argued in his introduction to the 14th Netspar Anniversary Meeting. After all, a euro given…

Older employees are looking forward to an increasingly longer career. Investing in lifelong learning is in their own interest and that of their employers. Training participation of Dutch employees, however, decreases with increasing age. This is partly due to the declining motivation of older employees. But companies also usually invest less in employees from 45 years. Age discrimination may play a role: employers expect…

Although almost half of the Dutch are worried about their future finances, it is difficult to get people to immerse themselves in their financial situation. The people who want to do so find that data is stored in a fragmented way and, moreover, is difficult to collect, organize and understand. In this Netspar report, researchers from TU Delft analyzed what it takes to remove…

A final trip around the world, or leave some money to your loved ones? The authors of this study find that individuals who die from a terminal illness have much less wealth on their day of death than people who die unexpectedly. They interpret this as a strong indication that the desire to give money to loved ones – with a warm hand –…

Working longer leads to much discussion. It improves the sustainability of public finances, but not all people are able to work until they reach the state pension age. More flexibility in the transition from working life to retirement can have positive effects on health, (work) satisfaction and sustainable employability. The Netspar project group “Flexible retirement” (Flexibel met pensioen) analyzed the options and bottlenecks for…

Netspar has secured funding for a new program term and is launching an ambitious research agenda for 2019-2023 – “Netspar NexT” – with the support of its partners. The new program will highlight three core themes affecting old age, pensions, and retirement in the Netherlands: the transition to a new Pension Agreement, the ongoing development of financial life cycle planning, and forecasts regarding the…

Netspar congratulates the winners of the Netspar thesis awards 2019: Lu Yi, Marianne Tenand and Tias contenders Maarten de Haas, Steven Jonk, Herialt Mens and Semih Eski. The prizes of € 3.000 each were awarded during the annual International Pension Workshop to outstanding master, phd and Tias theses within the Netspar research program. All nominated papers were assessed on academic quality, relevance to the…

The Netspar Board of Directors recently awarded two theme project applications grants of €250,000 each, following scientific validation by the Scientific Council and a positive recommendation by the Partner Research Council. This brings the total awarded to long-term research in 2019 to 1 million euros. About the research: Developing and Testing a Model of Inertia in Retirement Decisions It is well known that most…

To what extent does the existing pension system still fit organically into our changing society? As individual responsibility and risk assumption grow, it is almost impossible to avoid having to offer more options. Yet this raises the question of what role customization and freedom of choice might play in providing people optimized financial planning for their entire life course. What is the potential impact…

The Netspar Board of Directors recently awarded grants of €250,000 each to two applications for theme projects, following scientific validation by the Scientific Council and a positive recommendation by the Partner Research Council: The Causes and Consequences of Retirement: A Sociological Perspective (Kène Henkens, NIDI) The Effectiveness of Decision Aids in Pension Communications and the Role of Literacy (Hans Hoeken, Leo Lentz, and Adriaan…