Falling stock prices have damaged the recovery of the large Dutch pension funds. The five largest industry funds, including ABP, have announced that their financial position has deteriorated. As a result, the pension of many Dutch people will not be increased for the time being, a reduction cannot be ruled out.
The funding ratio of five large pension funds fell slightly in the first quarter of 2018. The funding ratio shows whether the funds have sufficient assets to meet future obligations.
ABP chairman of the board Corien Wortmann-Kool says: “Although the economy is improving in the Netherlands and abroad, we also see that there is unrest in the financial markets. This while the interest rate in the Netherlands remains virtually the same. As a result, the coverage ratio at ABP shows a slight decrease in the first quarter of this year.”
This quarter saw rising interest rates in the US. There was also the threat of a trade war between the US and China. This resulted in falling stock prices.
ABP, PFZW, PME and PMT expect that pensions will not grow in line with inflation over the next five years. The funds warn that there is still a chance of a discount.
Source: NOS and ABP
I think it goes too far about the falling prices and talk of a trade war being the cause of this. The cause only comes from the ECB with their interest rate and purchase policy. I dare to say that the policy of the ECB alone has led to pension holders in the Netherlands paying around 200 billion euros and perhaps much more for this. And so Spain, Italy and Greece are paid to keep their debts affordable.
Our entire cabinet is shutting its eyes by the ECB and European policy.
Thanks to the falling interest rates thanks to the ECB, homeowners with a loan for this pay only 1,2 percent or higher, while interest rates used to fluctuate around 5%.
And the prices of equity investments depend on many factors. Suppose they invest in the US or Asia, then they do not have much to do with the ECB. So that claim of 200 billion is nonsense, if one achieves little exchange rate gains, then the pension funds are free to invest elsewhere, outside the EU.
Dear Ger, first take a look at how and where pension funds should invest and what regulations they must comply with. ABP BV is more than 90% in bonds, due to the falling interest rate this yields too little and falling interest rates are the result of ECB policy.
Pension funds already invest worldwide, some have now even stepped out as banks to offer mortgages, so then your statement of 1,2% interest for that and gone is the profit taking inflation into account. All in all, they do it for a reason, that will probably be much better than the mandatory bonds.
A mortgage interest rate of 1,2% is simply not healthy. And why do mortgage applications have to be assessed at an interest rate of 5% to see whether applicants can have that when taking out a mortgage, this applies to mortgages up to 10 years fixed. A longer fixed period may be assessed against the actual interest paid.
According to their website, ABP invests 60 percent in shares and real estate (high risk) and 40 percent in government bonds, for example (low risk).
What I find important is that there are pension funds that can generate a high return, year after year. So I think there is also a lot of bad investment policy at some (large) pension funds. To look at my own situation: the company I worked for was allowed to have a company pension fund and this company pension fund scores better than the industry pension fund: so better investments alone lead to higher pensions.
In addition, I read on the ABP website that an average return of 20% has been achieved over the last 7 years.
In addition, the article mentions a negative picture, a snapshot, at the end of March. However, the policy funding ratio – the average funding ratio over the past twelve months – increased by one percentage point from 107% to 108%, because lower funding ratios have been replaced by higher ones. The policy funding ratio at the end of 2016 was 98 percent and rose to 106 percent at the end of 2017. So it can be said that the pension funds are doing better.
Place the chart of the AEX next to that of the pension chart and see the lie.
I hope that someday a whistleblower will step up to reveal the greatest theft ever.
Falling stock prices?? Do not make me laugh. The prices of shares in the USA are on it
highest point ever. The Netherlands lags behind slightly, but prices are also rising.
We are cheated in front of us by those pension funds.
There are still several people at the top of ABP who have to invest and more than that for that
1.000.000 a year, but apparently nothing to do. They are scammers.
I think you missed the mini crash of 2 months ago.
The shares then traded in quite a bit. A correction is then seen. Yes, that affects the pension funds for a while. But do not be sad. Most stocks have since recovered. And if this remains the case or improves further, we will again see an increase in funding ratios in the 2nd quarter.
Lo you are absolutely right. you will be screwed and lied to in front of you. And not to forget the amounts that the government has grabbed from it. Let them first pay it back. And the outrageous sums that are still being paid to many people in the Top. Once again you are just being cheated. What comedians.
Cut pensions with billions in the bank. if you have followed the Black Ravens program about how pension funds work, and how afraid they are of publishing and making this public, says enough. We are all being cheated by these people with sky-high salaries. also paid by us.
As a former pension administrator, I can tell you that it's not too bad with those sky-high salaries: only an expense allowance (train) and a dinner once a year. That was all. The actual investment of the premiums was outsourced, but a cheap solution was of course also sought there.
If I may make a prediction: value retention is not feasible in the foreseeable future because returns will be low or even negative. So we will have to settle for less and less.
Hans Pronk,
I am a registered accountant and I would like to explain some of your statements as no nonsense, how did you come up with it, dinner and expenses, perhaps you are a pinprick but everything is incorrect.
Unfortunately I can't hide everything, then I have to reveal my highest friend who works at the FIOD and I don't want to and I can't. The Ministry of Justice will then back down again and people will resign,
I took care of my own pension but I have my concerns how pension funds work is just common theft and approved by the government, think about that Hans.
So Hans I would like to have a conclave with you about this, but without casualties and opening your eyes.
I suppose the entire pension system is 1 grand theft, now you Hans
Dear Roel,
Where a lot of money is involved, the temptation is of course great and so things will indeed go wrong here and there. But the fact that it is one big theft is of course going too far. And what's the point of a discussion with you if you don't even believe that the eight directors of our fund only received an expense allowance plus one dinner. And it was a fund with a few hundred million euros under management.
Unfortunately I have a duty of confidentiality, but I know better if I can open a book about the board. So Hans speak the truth then everyone will not be happy.
A few months ago there was an interview with the top boss of the ABP in the Volkskrant or the NRC, in which he said that the huge salaries paid by the top of the investors
had meanwhile been reduced. There were now only 5 employees who received a million or more. that's different than a "dinner"
A pension manager is completely different from an investor….
Just under 10 years ago, there was a discussion about awarding remuneration to directors. It was then mapped out. Two years later there was a merger with 2 other pension funds and then I stopped. I don't know if there are refunds now. Drivers are becoming more and more demanding, so it wouldn't surprise me. But exorbitant fees? No, that seems unlikely to me.
Our retirement, what a drama story for many of us. I always thought I would receive a stable pension, because that had been promised to me since 1971, but the truth has proven to be different many times. In addition to my busy job, I worked for about 10 years as a department manager for a police union and I always stood up for the ABP pension fund and wrote them in heaven and tried to motivate colleagues to do the same and trust. I now really regret that. I have been less and less enthusiastic in recent decades, but now I have reached a low point. What does this club do for us and how do they do their best to deliver on what they promised? What I hear and read is that the Mea Maxima Culpa story is always being sold to us. They cannot help it that things are going badly, others are to blame for this. Politics, banks, etc. The Black Swans program has proven to be a real eye-opener. Look at how that journalist is treated when he investigates and asks critical questions. He is removed from the buildings like a criminal. That is the policy and that is how you are fobbed off by this organization. A shady world at the top, but many executives in this organization are doing their utmost to keep the business running for an average salary and then the culture of fear of losing their jobs is terrible. I cannot emphasize it often enough that there are other interests at play and they are preferable. Your own profit because oh, people are so important and deserve such a top salary. Do not make me laugh. I have some friends and acquaintances who work at pension funds and banks and know how things work. My ex-wife also worked at a bank and was a mortgage lender/adviser. Do your best for a pittance and let the top people bathe in luxury. Look at the castles of office buildings, who paid for them. I submitted a complaint to the ABP this week. I received a simple question, asked before, but no answer. After more than a month I received an answer that made my pants drop. A standard sentence that I could have come up with myself, but which did not do justice to my question. What I find important is how ABP will stand up and fight against injustice, which has happened to many of us. I was promised considerably more pension than I received. I haven't had an adequate answer to this. It is a large group of friends at the top and the big money is privately distributed on the backs of the depositors and pensioners. My thanks also go to the politicians who keep adjusting the tax rules (downwards of course) and thus saddle the pension funds with problems that, as an organization without a backbone, they have no answer to. Or is there something else going on at the top, because we don't have to worry about taking care of ourselves.
When will that cesspool open. we are cheated in front of us and how is it possible that the pension fund of civil servants and government people is running well I may be simple I have also paid for years like all Dutch people for early retirement that pot has also gone up in smoke.
The pension funds have achieved a return of 10% over the past 7 years, so also in the lean years.
We have been screwed for 10 years, but we probably like it because instead of the right Netherlands being judged for this, the Netherlands is moving further and further to the right, incomprehensible to me.
I am 32 and wonder if I will ever be entitled to all that pension that I have been paying for years now.
I preferred to arrange it myself, but that is not allowed, but on the other hand, what are we talking about.
Many people in their 30s already have an expected retirement age of 72 at mijnabp.nl
So those few years of suffering will not make it anymore.