Video: what influence does the government have on your pension?
In the first six months of this year, the assets of Philips Pensioenfonds increased by almost 1.8 billion euros. However, at the end of June of this year our financial situation was not that good as at the start of 2019. This indicates that only the size of the assets does not really say much about the financial situation of Philips Pensioenfonds. After all, we only know whether the assets are sufficient if we know how much money the Fund needs to pay you and all other pension builders and pension recipients the pension now and in the future. We call this the pension liabilities. And in the aforementioned period they increased even more than the assets. The main reason for this was a fall in the interest that we must use to calculate the pension liabilities.
A lot has been said about the interest in the media lately. Because recent interest rate falls, many pension participants will be faced with a reduction in their pension in the coming year. Fortunately, reducing pensions at Philips Pensioenfonds is not an issue now. But we do notice that you have questions about the interest rate.
What many people do not know is that the interest is not determined by pension funds themselves, but is prescribed by the government. The government thus has a strong influence on the financial position of pension funds and ultimately also on your pension.
In the video below we discuss the influence that the Dutch government has on your pension through legal rules. The video is in Dutch.