Mission, vision and strategy

The purpose of the pension fund is to pay pensions to (future) pension beneficiaries and to provide benefits to surviving dependents in the event of death. The pension fund had made arrangements in the administration agreement with the affiliated employer(s) regarding the financing of the pension agreement.

For the purposes of this Abtn, the Board has the following stakeholders:

a The former participants;

b The pension beneficiaries;

c The other beneficiaries as former partners;

d The affiliated employer(s).

The Pension Fund has formulated the following mission, vision and strategy:

Mission

The fund aims to be a sustainable and reliable pension fund for all stakeholders. To this end, the board pursues a solid financial policy and tests whether agreements are in accordance with laws and regulations. Important elements of the policy include the indexation policy, participation of all stakeholders, principles of good pension fund governance and a sound risk management and communication policy.

Vision

In the future, the fund wants to continue to take care of the interests of the various member groups so that each stakeholder feels seen and represented on the basis of solidarity.

The pension fund strives for optimal transparency and clear and transparent communication. In staffing the pension fund we strive for the right mix of relevant expertise, experience and competencies and for continuous improvement. The ambition of the pension fund is to continue to offer the best possible pension under all circumstances.

Strategy

Objectives

The fund makes an active contribution to maintaining a sustainable pension scheme that enjoys broad confidence while also ensuring a good and affordable scheme that remains attractive to all stakeholders, young and old.

  • Maintaining a broad risk base based on solidarity and collectivity

    The fund serves its (former) participants and pensioners in such a way that they feel represented within the fund and allocates the risks present in the scheme as evenly as possible to all stakeholders.
  • Further growth towards a customer-oriented pension fund

    The fund achieves transparency and engagement by providing the information that actually helps its stakeholders to make the right pension choices. The fund gives participants a clear understanding of their pension situation. The communication is not only aimed at older people, but also draws the attention of younger people to the importance of a good pension.
  • Continuous professionalization of the organization

    The fund (pro)actively complies with the Pension Funds Code. This code focuses on the three functions of "good pension fund governance": managing, supervising and accounting for what the fund has planned and realized. The fund also ensures that the pension scheme is implemented in line with the fund's objectives at the best possible value for money.

Core values

The core values of the Fund are ethics, involvement, soundness, expertise and transparency and it protects these as follows:

  • Soundness

    The tasks entrusted to the fund must be carried out soundly. All stakeholders must not only be able to rely on the fund, but must also experience the fund as a reliable pension fund. Therefore, great value is placed on the integrity of the fund and the fund is alert to anything that could jeopardize it. Thus, all decisions are careful and appropriate within the character and responsibilities of the fund and the board also pays constant attention to the scope of the consequences of these decisions.
  • Expertise

    The fund performs its duties competently and professionally in an adequate and considered manner. The fund is accountable for its conduct and its decisions. When external parties are engaged, they must also meet the fund's standards.
  • Balancing interests

    In its decision-making, the fund takes into account a balanced consideration of the interests of all participant groups.
  • Transparency

    The fund communicates clearly and openly about the scheme, the fund's financial position and the associated risks to the fund's stakeholders. The fund also clearly and openly accounts for the performance of the tasks assigned to it, the financial policy pursued by the fund and the results thereof.

Ambition

The ambition is to manage the resources entrusted to the fund in such a way that all participants are offered a good pension now and in the future. It is the ambition of the fund to grant supplements on this pension based on the price index for the former participants and the pensioners (a so-called value-based pension). This ambition is translated into the pension scheme, which the fund implements carefully and as qualitatively as possible.

However, the fund cannot guarantee a value-based pension. Any indexation must be financed from the excess return on investments. However, the result of the investments depends on economic developments and (their consequences in) uncertain and volatile financial markets. To meet the ambition of the pension plan, the fund must invest, and investing is never without risks. The fund therefore invests wisely and makes every effort to control risks as much as possible. This is done, among other things, by spreading the investments so that the fund achieves better average investment results within the established risk frameworks. In this way, a higher long-term return can be achieved than with savings alone. This brings the fund closer to its objective of offering participants a pension that is stable in value at acceptable risks, in order to maintain the purchasing power of the pension benefit.

Right of existence and sustainability of pension funds

The pension industry faces profound changes that create uncertainty. The challenge is to continue to meet the expectations of all fund stakeholders. There are developments (such as the possible transition to the new pension system - Wet toekomst pensioenen (Wtp), inflation developments, further sustainability, etc.), which also have consequences for the management and organization of the fund. All these developments make it necessary for the fund to periodically review and evaluate the implementation of the pension plan through its own company pension fund. The fund monitors this using a vulnerability matrix, which is based on the risk indicators formulated by DNB in January 2014 against which pension fund boards must assess the sustainability of their pension fund. The vulnerability matrix is updated every six months.

There are good arguments not to change the choice for an own company pension fund at the moment, such as the influence and involvement of stakeholders, the high service level, an acceptable level of administration and asset management costs and good expected pension results based on prognosis calculations in various scenarios.