Sustainability information.

The Zwitserleven Feeling is inextricably linked to a beautiful world. We all want to have enough income to live on later, but in a world that is worth living in. Zwitserleven believes that the financial sector should take a leading role in achieving this.

We are pleased to tell you more about our sustainable investment policy for your pension scheme. This information is in line with European rules on sustainability disclosures in the financial sector.

Action Plan for Financing Sustainable Growth

The European Commission (EC) presented the European Green Deal in December 2019. This is a series of policy initiatives aimed at making Europe climate neutral by 2050. The EC has drafted an Action Plan for Financing Sustainable Growth. This action plan consists of a large number of rules and regulations applying to most financial institutions. The European rules on sustainability disclosures in the financial sector are part of this action plan.

What is your pension scheme’s degree of ambition?

European rules identify three degrees of ambition for a pension scheme’s sustainability:

• Products that have sustainable investment as their objective
• Products that promote environmental and social (ES) sustainability characteristics
• Products that do not promote sustainability characteristics and do not have sustainable investment as their objective

Investment products that promote ES characteristics

An Athora Netherlands N.V. group company, Zwitserleven applies Athora’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy (see also its Sustainability Framework). In our pension schemes where contributions are invested, an employer chooses which investment forms to make available to participants. The employer can choose from HorizonBeleggen (‘Horizon Investing’), ProfielBeleggen (‘Profile Investing’) or VrijBeleggen (‘Self-Directed Investing’).

• A pension scheme with HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen promotes ES characteristics. Zwitserleven funds are used. The manager of these funds ensures as much as possible that the funds’ investments meet ES characteristics.
• With VrijBeleggen (if offered under a pension scheme), the participant is responsible for the selection of investment funds. They can choose from the Zwitserleven funds, ASN funds and BlackRock’s iShares. A participant thus decides how much they wish to consider sustainability in their investments.

The Zwitserleven funds in our pension schemes promote the following ecological features:

• Climate change mitigation and adaptation: achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.
• Protecting and restoring biodiversity and ecosystems: not contributing to deforestation.
• Sustainable use and protection of water resources: achieving water neutrality.
• Pollution prevention and control: not contributing to production involving waste.

The Zwitserleven funds in our pension schemes promote the following social features:

• Promoting good living conditions: contributing to the living conditions of communities.
• Promoting good working conditions: contributing to the well-being of employees and managing social injustice and inequality as much as possible.

The ES characteristics are listed in the sustainability reports. These reports are an appendix to the prospectuses of the Zwitserleven funds. There are also links to the funds in the fund overview below (under the heading ‘Sustainability ambitions per fund’). You can find the Sustainability Information on the fund page under ‘Documents’.

Life cycles to reduce investment risk

HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen apply life cycles, which are a mix of investments in which the risk is steadily reduced as the standard retirement date approaches. In other words, this asset mix changes over the course of the pension accrual period.
More about investment form HorizonBeleggen

HorizonBeleggen

This figure shows the distribution of investments among the various Zwitserleven funds in HorizonBeleggen during the term with default choice of a fixed pension:

This figure shows the distribution of investments among the various Zwitserleven funds in HorizonBeleggen during the term with standard choice of a variable pension:

Sustainability ambition per fund

The table below also lists the funds along with their sustainability ambition. Each fund’s investments contribute to the sustainability ambition of the pension scheme as a whole. A sustainability report is available for each fund. To what extent those reports apply to a specific participant depends on that participant’s standard retirement date. The funds listed in the table  below link to all information about the specific fund. The sustainability reports are annexed to the prospectuses. You can also find more information on aspects including methodologies, data sources and data processing, and due diligence.

As you can see, for example, 73.1% of contributions are invested in the Zwitserleven Wereld Aandelenfonds until 12 years before your standard retirement date. The Zwitserleven Wereld Aandelenfonds invests predominantly in sustainable index funds as well as in an impact world equity fund. To gradually reduce investment risks, the investment in the Zwitserleven Wereld Aandelenfonds decreases bit by bit as retirement approaches. Conversely, the share in Zwitserleven Duration funds increases and so does the share in the sustainability ambitions of your pensions’ investments. Investments of the Zwitserleven Duration funds consist mainly of bonds, money market instruments and derivatives. While these highly specific investments promote ES characteristics, they are less suitable for pursuing sustainable investment objectives. The total degree of sustainability may become less as a result.

You can read this in the overview below:

ProfielBeleggen

ProfielBeleggen (‘Profile Investing’) offers five different life cycles to invest in: Conservative, Defensive, Neutral, Ambitious and Offensive.

For the Neutral life cycle, the allocation of Zwitserleven funds is the same as the allocation used for HorizonBeleggen. The other life cycles have a different asset mix.

• Conservative and Defensive start investing earlier in Zwitserleven Duration funds. As a result, the sustainability reports for these funds become relevant for the sustainability ambitions of these life cycles from 18 years or 15 years before the standard retirement date.

  Sustainability ambition of share Conservative Profile

  Investment fund	Percentage Profile Conservative
  Zwitserleven Wereld Aandelenfonds	Until 18 years before the standard retirement date: 73.1%. After that, it will be gradually reduced to 0.0%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Selectie Fonds	Until 18 years before the standard retirement date: 14.9%. After that, it will be reduced to 0.0%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Duration funds	Consists of the following funds: Zwitserleven Medium Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Long Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Ultra Long Duration Fonds Until 18 years before the standard retirement date: 0.0%. After that, it will be gradually increased to 88.0% for standard fixed pension. If the participant chooses to prepare for variable pension income, the percentage depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Credits Hypotheken Mixfonds	Until the standard retirement date: 12.0%.

  You can see this in the graph below:

  

  Sustainability ambition of share Defensive Profile

  Investment fund	Percentage Profile Defensive
  Zwitserleven Wereld Aandelenfonds	Until 15 years before the standard retirement date: 73.1%. After that, it will be gradually reduced to 10.9%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Selectie Fonds	Until 15 years before the standard retirement date: 14.9%. After that, it will be reduced to 4.1%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Duration funds	Consists of the following funds: Zwitserleven Medium Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Long Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Ultra Long Duration Fonds Until 15 years before the standard retirement date: 0.0%. After that, it will be gradually increased to 73.0%. If the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income, the percentage depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Credits Hypotheken Mixfonds	Until the standard retirement date: 12.0%.

  You can see this in the graph below:

  

• For the Ambitious and Offensive life cycles, the investments are changed to investments in the Zwitserleven Duration funds at a later date. As a consequence, the sustainability reports for those funds also become relevant only later (from 10 years and 8 years) for the sustainability ambitions of these life cycles.
  Sustainability ambition of share Ambitious Profile

  Investment fund	Percentage Profile Ambitious
  Zwitserleven Wereld Aandelenfonds	Until 10 years before the standard retirement date: 77.3%. After that, it will be reduced to 26.6%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Selectie Fonds	Until 10 years before the standard retirement date: 14.7%. After that, it will be reduced to 8.3%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Duration funds	Consists of the following funds: Zwitserleven Medium Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Long Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Ultra Long Duration Fonds Until 10 years before the standard retirement date: 0.0%. After that, it will be gradually increased to 57.1% for standard fixed pension. If the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income, the percentage depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Credits Hypotheken Mixfonds	Until the standard retirement date: 8.0%.

  You can see this in the graph below:

  

  Sustainability ambition of share Offensive Profile

  Investment fund	Percentage Profile Offensive
  Zwitserleven Wereld Aandelenfonds	Until 8 years before the standard retirement date: 80.5%. After that, it will be gradually reduced to 30.1%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Selectie Fonds	Until 8 years before the standard retirement date: 14.5%. After that, it will be reduced to 9.9%. The latter percentage may be higher if the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income and depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Duration funds	Consists of the following funds: Zwitserleven Medium Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Long Duration Fonds Zwitserleven Ultra Long Duration Fonds Until 8 years before the standard retirement date: 0.0%. After that, it will be gradually increased to 55.0% for standard fixed pension. If the participant chooses to prepare for a variable pension income, the percentage depends on the extent to which it is chosen.
  Zwitserleven Credits Hypotheken Mixfonds	Until the standard retirement date: 5.0%.

  You can see this in the graph below:

  

ZekerheidZwitch

If you opt for more certainty and clarity about your pension amount through ZekerheidZwitch, the Zwitserleven Duration funds will be less relevant. This is because investments in the Zwitserleven Duration funds are sold earlier to buy retirement pension and partner’s pension coming into payment after the retirement date.
More information on the ZekerheidZwitch asset mix 

Preparing for a variable pension

If you decide to prepare some or all of the pension capital for a variable pension at the standard retirement date, the Zwitserleven Duration funds will be less relevant. This is because investments in the Zwitserleven Duration funds will be reduced and investments in the other Zwitserleven funds will continue for longer.
More about preparing for a variable pension

What is our sustainable investment approach?

Cardano, the fund manager of the Zwitserleven funds, applies its sustainability policy to the funds and assesses whether the companies, public authorities and institutions invested in meet the environmental, social or governance (ESG) principles set out in that policy.

To meet our sustainability goals, the fund manager uses the following instruments:

• ESG ratings
• Exclusion policy
• Engagement policy
• Voting policy at shareholder meetings

The funds’ sustainability reports describe how and to what extent the fund investments are environmentally sustainable and to what extent they contribute to the following environmental objectives:   

• Climate change mitigation 
• Climate change adaptation 
• Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources  n 
• The transition to a circular economy 
• Pollution prevention and control, and 
• Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems

Investments in the funds designated as environmentally sustainable by the fund manager contribute to one of the six aforementioned environmental objectives defined in EU legislation. Those investments must not simultaneously harm any of the other environmental objectives. This is referred to as the ‘do no significant harm’ principle. The ‘do no significant harm’ principle applies only to those investments underlying the financial product (the investment fund) that take into account the EU criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities. The investments underlying the remaining portion of this financial product do not take into account the EU criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities.

VrijBeleggen

With the VrijBeleggen investment form, the individual participants are responsible for their selection of investments. We determine the investor profile on the basis of a questionnaire completed by the participant. The participant may deviate from the investor profile when selecting their investments. 

A participant in VrijBeleggen may choose from Zwitserleven funds other than those included in HorizonBeleggen or ProfielBeleggen. With VrijBeleggen, a participant may also select ASN funds and iShares from BlackRock.

A comprehensive list of all the funds participants can choose from, along with their sustainability ambitions, is given below. The selection also determines that sustainability ambition. Only if investment funds are selected that promote environmental and/or social characteristics or have a sustainable objective, and investments are kept in one or more of these funds throughout the term, can a pension scheme with VrijBeleggen be considered a product that promotes environmental and/or social characteristics.

Information about the funds

Read more information below about the Zwitserleven funds, ASN funds and BlackRock funds.

Sustainability risks and the effect on returns with HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen

We are happy to tell you more about how sustainability risks are factored in to (are integrated into) Cardano’s investment decisions. And how this affects expected returns. Sustainability risk is an ESG event or circumstance that may have an adverse impact on the value of plan assets.

Cardano assesses whether any sustainability risks are associated with the companies or institutions in which the Zwitserleven funds invest. For example if those companies or institutions are irresponsible or careless when it comes to sustainability aspects. Cardano measures sustainability risks based on data from independent data providers and climate risk related Value at Risk data. Cardano looks into individual companies or sectors, but also the sustainability risks that may be tied to specific countries or regions.

The principal sustainability risks are risks associated with:

• Production, distribution and use of fossil fuels
• Management of chemicals and waste, land use, water use
• Physical impacts of climate change and extreme weather
• Conduct and integrity of organisations
• Irresponsible treatment of staff and stakeholders of a company or institution (e.g. customers, local population)

These risks may reduce the returns of the Zwitserleven funds.

More detailed information is available in the prospectuses of  Zwitserleven Beleggingsfondsen and Zwitserleven Institutionele Beleggingsfondsen. Chapter 8.6 provides more general information on sustainability risks and Chapter 11 provides fund-specific information and information on the potential impact on returns. For HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen funds, this prospectus information is contained in this document.

How does Cardano integrate sustainability risks into its investment policy?

For all Zwitserleven funds or companies, Cardano assesses whether the companies, public authorities and institutions it invests in comply with ESG principles. This is done on the basis of its fundamental investment principles and material sustainability drivers.

Do the companies, public authorities and institutions show that they can manage key sustainability risks and/or take advantage of sustainability opportunities? The extent to which they do so determines their classification in Cardano’s sustainability framework. And that classification determines whether or not the responsible, sustainable or impact funds are allowed to invest in these companies, public authorities and institutions.

Responsible, sustainable or impact is a classification system highlighting the increasing focus on sustainability.

• Responsible investment funds set minimum behavioural requirements and/or formulate sustainability objectives to a limited extent.
• Sustainable funds set strict sustainability targets in addition to financial targets.
• Impact funds set an additional goal besides financial targets and strict sustainability targets. Demonstrable positive social added value is created, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Instruments

To ensure that the investment policies of the Zwitserleven funds comply with ES characteristics, Cardano uses a number of instruments. These instruments are also used in funds that have sustainable investment as their objective. The instruments are:

• Exclusion policy
• Use of ESG ratings
• Engagement policy, and
• Voting policy at shareholder meetings

Chapter 11 of the prospectuses of Zwitserleven Beleggingsfondsen and Zwitserleven Institutionele Beleggingsfondsen states for each fund whether it is a responsible, sustainable or impact fund. It also sets out what the exact minimum requirements and strict sustainability targets are and what demonstrable positive social added value is being pursued.

Chapters 4.2, 4.2.3, 4.3 and 4.4 give more information on the exclusion policy, the use of ESG ratings, the engagement policy and the voting policy at shareholder meetings.
This is the current list of companies excluded by Cardano. The excluded government bonds and the reasons for their exclusion are included in this list.

Cardano’s ESG rating policy for companies is available here. There is also an up-to-date overview of ongoing engagements. Here you can also find the voting policy (In English)

Read the  Cardano Quarterly SRI report for Q1 2024.

Sustainability risks and the effect on returns with VrijBeleggen

The extent to which sustainability risks are taken into account with VrijBeleggen is determined by the fund manager of the funds selected with VrijBeleggen.

For the Zwitserleven funds, Cardano integrates sustainability risks into its investment decisions in the same way as outlined above for HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen. How ASN Impact Investors (ASN funds) and BlackRock (iShares) deal with these risks for the investment funds managed by them is explained in the prospectuses of these investment funds. These prospectuses are available in the list of fund names for VrijBeleggen.

Adverse impacts on sustainability with HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen

HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen consider the principal adverse impacts on sustainability factors, i.e. the adverse sustainability impact of investment decisions. Sustainability factors are environmental, social and employment matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and anti-bribery matters. We aim to mitigate the principal adverse impacts of the HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen investments for the pension scheme. Cardano, the manager of the Zwitserleven funds, has drawn up a sustainability policy in accordance with various international conventions and best practices, including:

• The UN Global Compact
• The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and
• The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises

To implement that policy, Cardano, the manager of the Zwitserleven funds, applies instruments such as exclusion, screening/selection, engagement and exercise of voting rights. Finally, we collect information on the ‘principal adverse impacts’ indicators as defined in EU legislation. This gives us information on the impact of our investments on greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, water content, waste, social issues and working conditions. The annual uniform pension statement gives details of how all this was implemented in the financial year, supplemented with numerical data where possible.

Adverse impacts on sustainability with VrijBeleggen

The extent to which the principal adverse impacts on sustainability factors are considered with VrijBeleggen is determined by the fund manager of the funds selected with VrijBeleggen.

For the Zwitserleven funds, Cardano integrates the principal adverse impacts into its investment decisions in the same way as outlined above for HorizonBeleggen and ProfielBeleggen. For ASN Impact Investors (ASN funds) and BlackRock (iShares) you can find more information in the prospectuses of these investment funds.

Adverse impacts on sustainability for the Zwitserleven entity

The Zwitserleven brand and trade name are used by life insurance company SRLEV N.V. and by Zwitserleven PPI N.V. We also provide information on how we consider the principal adverse impacts on the entity level, i.e. for SRLEV N.V. and Zwitserleven PPI N.V. The information regarding SRLEV N.V. differs in some respects from the information regarding Zwitserleven PPI N.V.

• Sustainability information for Zwitserleven SRLEV N.V.
• Sustainability information for Zwitserleven PPI N.V.

This website text was published on 22 March 2024 and has not been updated since.