Cordares is to create a new individual and ‘user-friendly’ pension planning product for the new union for Dutch self-employed people.
The Dutch Alternative for Labour Union (AVV) has appointed the pensions management group, formerly the SFB fund for the building industry for the task.
AVV – a newly established labour union representing the interests of the self-employed, amongst others - is also establishing a new open pension fund (OPen) for self-employed workers.
Currently, the roughly 700,000 self-employed people in the Netherlands cannot join a pension saving scheme because they have no formal employer-employee relationship, according to a Cordares statement.
However, changes to Dutch pension law and new EU guidelines provide a platform to create a new open pension scheme for self-employed people, said AVV chairperson Mei Li Vos.
However, AVV will have to get Dutch government approval for the product. Vos told IPE that the Ministry of Social Affairs and the steering committees of pension funds are very content with the current pensions system.
According to Vos, this “very powerful lobby” is refusing change. However, she stated that AVV hopes to get approval by the end of the year.
Codares was selected via a tendering and selection process, which included some large insurance companies and various other pension providers. Vos said that the Cordares product was selected because it was ‘cost-effective’.
The Cordares’ product has been described by the group as a “hybrid ‘defined risk’ type of product”, seeking to balance individual investment choice, risk management and cost transparency.
According to Codares’ sales, strategy and innovation managing director Jeroen Tielman, there is a need for a user-friendly individual pension-planning product.
“We see a great need for an alternative pension product combining some of the benefits of DB as well as of DC,” he said.

Topics