‘For a very long time, we did not have a pension scheme’, says Marianne van der Rijst, HR Business partner at fleetkennis in Houten. This mobility specialist manages vehicle fleets of 100 or more vehicles for medium-sized and large companies. ‘Being and remaining an attractive employer is very important in our market. You need to win people’s loyalty in order to be able to develop. We found that the lack of a pension scheme was becoming an HR risk. If employees can build up pensions somewhere else, that may be a reason to look for a different employer, and that’s what we want to avoid. The new Act immediately made it clear to Marianne that they wanted to introduce a WTP-proof pension scheme. ‘Future-proof: that was my most important starting point.’

Most important changes

For employers wishing to agree a pension scheme compliant with the WTP, a great deal will change. One important change is that in the future all employees will accrue pensions in defined contribution schemes. ‘This actually means that no pension amounts will be promised any more’, says Maurits van Vliet. ‘The contributions will be fixed, but not the ultimate result.’ Maurits works at pension administrator Aegon Cappital as a senior sales consultant. ‘Every employee has their own pension savings, to which both they and the employer contribute. That money is invested and the employees themselves decide how much risk is taken in those investments.’

Another new element is that the contribution percentage will be the same at every age. At present, the contribution percentages increase as employees draw closer to retirement age. The older the employee, the higher the share invested in their pension savings. The new system works with flat and, therefore, age-independent premium rates. The contribution percentages do not rise with the age of the employee. Maurits explains: ‘If you have a pension scheme for your employees that complies with the WTP rules, you have to decide whether the flat premiums will apply for all employees, or only for new staff. If you choose the latter, we refer to that as ‘transitional rights’. For existing employees, the rising contributions will still apply. They will continue to accrue pensions in the same way.’

If an employer opts for the variant where the flat premium applies for everyone, that will be a major change that will be unfavourable for older employees, Maurits explains. ‘For that group, the contributions will be lower which means they will have a lower pension when they retire. If you choose that option, then as an employer, you will have to think about how you will compensate that group financially.’

Pensions specialist

Because Marianne has no sufficient pension expertise she contacted a pensions specialist. On the basis of their requirements, Aegon Cappital proved to be the best choice. ‘They were one of the first to have the product and the accompanying IT ready’ she says. ‘For instance, they have the customer portal that we want.’ The speed at which Aegon Cappital had everything in order has already proved worthwhile. ‘It has brought us extra customers, such as fleetkennis. They now have a pension scheme that complies with the new rules. And that gives a great signal to the market’, says Maurits. ‘In this way, we show that we are on top of the latest developments and can switch quickly.’

Maurits advises other employers not to wait too long with switching to a new pension scheme. ‘January 2028 still seems like a long way off. But if you switch from an existing situation to the new system, you need to have your plan ready in time. This contains you choices for pension accrual, proposed compensation arrangements and any other important matters. Not every employer is working on this yet, because it is a time-consuming and laborious process which involves making difficult choices. But the longer you wait, the greater the risk that no advisor will be available.’

Start talks

In order to speed up this process, Maurits says it would be wise for employers to start talks with their employees. ‘Large companies have works councils which have to give consent to changes to the pension scheme. Smaller businesses will probably not have that. So they should create a team with delegates of the employer and the employees and find an advisor who can advise them on pension accrual.’ Marianne also recommends that employers who still need to take the step towards WTP-compliant pensions seek an advisor. ‘They are the experts. Don’t start trying to work it all out for yourself from scratch. It’s all very non-transparent and difficult and, certainly for busy SME employees, it’s just too big a subject. It costs too much time to do all this yourself.’