Towards a more personalized pension

"Does my pension really suit me?" With the focus that the Future Pensions Act (Wtp) places on the activation of individual participants, the market's demand will also shift. "One size fits all pension products are no longer of this time," says Edwin van den Oever, director of Zwitserleven PPI. "That's why we are focusing on a more personalized pension. And we are adding new features to the Zwitserleven Nu Pensioen (ZNP) of our PPI and also the Zwitserleven Exclusief Pensioen (ZEP)."

"Actually, two things are coming together for us," Edwin explains, referring to the integration of WTW’s PPI into Zwitserleven PPI. "Both PPIs had specific product features. When improving our proposition, we carefully looked at the best that these products had to offer. A combination of both has now been merged into a better solution for our customers. Additionally, we have also anticipated the Future Pensions Act and the developments in customer behavior and customer needs. We believe that a more personalized pension in terms of investing, contributions, and insights is becoming increasingly important."

Personal insight, personal contributions, and personal investing
Why these three aspects in particular? Edwin: "By providing personal insight, we hope to further activate customers to make choices. Choices that suit them well. With personal contributions, we encourage customers to think about how much they can and want to contribute to their personal pension pot. And what that means, now and for the future. So, now a bit less salary and later a bit more pension income; or vice versa. And thirdly, personal investing. We know that for most participants, making real investment choices is quite challenging. That's why about 95% end up in the default solution. We think that's a shame. By offering multiple default solutions without requiring the customer to make a choice, we also make investing smarter and more personalized."

Guidance in making choices
In the future, there will be more and more choices to make. "This also requires something from the employer," Edwin believes. "How can you, with your pension scheme, encourage your employees to prepare for the future in a way that fits their personal situation? Of course, we are happy to join forces. We do this by offering products with relevant options that can be tailored to the personal situation of an employee or group of employees. Guidance in making choices is the key word.

Looking ahead
To help the employer with this, we are developing a dashboard by the end of this year that provides insight into the pension scheme. And to what extent the employees participating in the scheme are using the online tools and options we offer. This way, we hope to work together to ensure the best possible pension that fits the participant. Because that's what it's ultimately about."

In the coming weeks, we will delve deeper into the new features of Zwitserleven Exclusief Pensioen and Zwitserleven Nu Pensioen.