In newsletter Gener@ties, we presented you with a number of statements about the new pension rules. On this page you will find the answers and more information on these topics.
1. Investment decisions
Statement: under the new system I will be able to make my own investment decisions. This statement is false.
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2. Fluctuations
Statement: under the new system, the pension I will receive might go up or down every month. This statement is false.
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3. Pension savings
Stelling: my pension savings will never run out, no matter until what age I live. This statement is true.
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New pension rules
The new pension scheme is expected to apply to participants of Philips Pensioenfonds from mid-2026. On this central page you will find more information.
Meer informatie1. Investement decisions
Why won't I be able to make my own investment choices, I thought the new pension plan would be more individual?
The reason that you will soon not be able to make your own investment choices is the choice of the social partners for the solidarity capital plan. The solidarity capital plan does not allow your own investment choices. If you had chosen the other variant, the flexible premium scheme, you would have been able to make your own investment choices within certain limits.
You will have your own pension capital, that capital will still be invested collectively, just as in the present set-up. In other words, the pension fund will invest the total pension capital of all its members together. You will not have the option to choose how it is invested.
For policyholders and members actively accruing their pension, the investment policy is linked to their age. This means taking more risk for younger members, who have a longer period to accrue their pension. The closer a member is to their retirement age, the less risk we will take. For pension beneficiaries, a uniform investment policy is used.
2. Will my pension change every month?
No, your pension will not change every month.
Your pension will be adjusted once a year. What will fluctuate every month is your personal pension capital. Under the new system, you will accrue a personal pension capital that is invested. The value of your pension capital will fluctuate over time. You will be able to see how much pension capital you have at a particular moment. You will also be able to see what developments have affected it, either increasing its value (contributions and investment gains, for example) or decreasing its value (such as benefits that you have drawn or investment losses).
How much pension you can draw from your pension capital after you retire will not be predetermined: instead, it will depend on factors such as future investment yields and the interest rates when you retire. Those yields will depend on your age: while you are young, more of your pension capital will be invested in equities (shares) and its value will fluctuate more strongly than when you are older and it is invested more conservatively.
When the new system is introduced, your pension will also be affected more strongly by economic fluctuations: it will be more likely to go up in times of prosperity, but also more likely to go down when the economy is struggling. We will try to prevent a decrease in pension benefits as much as possible.
With regard to the increase in your pension: in the current pension system, this is always done through indexation. In new pension system your pension will not be indexed in the way that it is now. Whether your pension goes up depends on the amount of your personal pension assets. And also besides the investment return, the projection return will be determining the yearly adjustment of the benefit.
In this video, Director of Investments Anita Joosten explains how this works.
3. Pensioenpot
Your personal pension capital can never run out.
You will still have a pension for as long as you live. You do not need to worry that you will not have any money left for your pension. On the retirement date, the annual pension is determined partly on the basis of life expectancy. This concerns the annual pension that a participant receives from his or her own pension capital. You might then think that the pension pot is empty as soon as a participant has reached that life expectancy. If a participant becomes older than expected, this participant would no longer receive a pension from that moment on. That is of course not the intention.
The Future Pensions Act stipulates that this so-called longevity risk must be covered. This way there is also pension income if one grows older than expected. The remaining pension capitalof participants who die earlier than expected are distributed among the participants who live longer than expected. The supplementation of the pension capital as you become older therefore takes place annually and gradually and not only from the moment you have become older than expected.
This does not mean, however, that a participant does not run any longevity risk at all. If fewer participants die than expected, less capital becomes available than necessary to supplement the pension capital of participants who live longer. On the other hand, the pension capital is supplemented more than necessary if more participants die than expected. However, this effect is much less than the investment risk that a participant runs. Moreover, the effect on our Fund is relatively limited anyway, because the number of participants who die annually is quite stable due to our size.
Watch the video for an explanation by our Pensions Director Mike Pernot of how this works.