“Borrowing constraints do not hamper self-employed more than wage-employed” Buying a home could be an attractive alternative to privately saving for a pension, especially for the self-employed. However, this option could be hampered by borrowing constraints introduced in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. The higher mortgage down payments required could make it harder for the self-employed to become homeowners and therefore acquire…

“The importance of communication for an understandable and acceptable new pension system” In the new Dutch pension system, participants have more choices but also more uncertainty. Therefore, communication should focus on enabling individuals to understand the system so that they can make appropriate pension choices. But communication also influence acceptance: do people experience the new system and its outcomes as justified? Finally, communication should…

“Funds need to give participants a voice in advancing sustainable investments” Pension funds are under social and political pressure to make their investment policies more sustainable. Furthermore, European legislation will increasingly require pension funds to explicitly measure participants’ preferences for sustainability in their investment policies. However, do pension fund participants prefer sustainable investments and do they want a say in how the fund does…

“Protecting new pensions against inflation is a realistic option” Draft texts for the Wet Toekomst Pensioenen (Dutch Future of Pensions Act) often mention maintaining purchasing power but devote limited attention to the risk of inflation. This is hardly surprising because, since the late 1990s, inflation has been very moderate without large persistent shocks. However, for the future inflation risk remains an important risk factor….

“Salient infographics help index mutual fund investors to minimise costs” Consumers who save for their pension in a DC pension scheme and the self-employed often invest in index mutual funds. They tend to invest in expensive funds because they fail to take fund fees sufficiently into account. A Key Investor Information Document (KIID) is mandatory for many investment and insurance products in the EU….

Wij gaan 8 maart (Internationale Vrouwendag) live met een nieuw podcastserie: Pensioen & Genderkloof. Geinspireerd op het paper ‘Gelijke rechten, maar geen gelijke pensioenen: De gender gap in Nederlandse tweede pijler pensioenen’ van Suzanne Kali, Jim Been, Marike Knoef en Albert van Marwijk Kooy (Universiteit Leiden). Dit paper en onderwerp heeft veel aandacht in de media gehad en blijft een actueel maatschappelijk thema. Dat vraagt om…

“Family and government insurance reduce but do not eliminate earnings risk in both countries” The dynamics and magnitude of earnings shocks have direct consequences for the pension accrual of employees and the optimal investment policy of pension assets. This study documents the distribution of male earnings shocks for different age and income groups. Furthermore, we examine the extent to which spousal income, government transfers,…

Pensioenfonds PGB has joined forces with the Research Center for Education and the Labor Market (ROA) at Maastricht University this month to embark on a new project: The role of pensions for career decisions. The project was initiated by Netspar and is being funded by Instituut Gak. Henk Heek, Lead Client Innovation at the Strategic Advice department, is playing a connecting role for PGB…

“Optimale pensioenmatching: balanceren tussen rationele en emotionele perspectieven” Sinds 2016 kunnen deelnemers in een Nederlandse premieregeling ervoor kiezen een variabel pensioen aan te kopen. Hiermee krijgt een deelnemer naar verwachting een hogere uitkering vergeleken met een vast pensioen, maar bestaat er ook het risico dat de uitkering lager uitvalt. In deze studie onderzoeken we hoe er een goede match kan worden gevonden tussen de…

“The status-quo bias is stronger when options are presented together rather than separately, however the bias disappears if the joint consequence of options are shown.” As a result of the new pension agreement, Dutch pension participants face an increasing number of pension choices during the accumulation of their pension and in how it is paid out. Participants’ choices have cumulative consequences, which they often…