NETHERLANDS – Only one in three managers of Dutch pension funds, polled at a pensions conference in the Netherlands, believe that the new collective defined contribution (CDC) pension plan is the only way for corporate pension funds to stay in business.

Two in three managers (65%) that that if the trade unions understood CDC they would not support it. However, three in four managers said CDC was likely to grow.

The poll was conducted at the fifth annual PensionSummit in Noordwijk, attended by 100 pension fund managers from the Netherlands and Belgium.

Jeroen Tielman, chairman of the PensionSummit, and managing director, sales strategy and innovation at Cordares, said the aim of the poll was to find whether CDC had a future.

“The basic question the PensionSummit addressed was whether collective DC is sustainable for the different stakeholders involved and under what conditions.”

Opinion among pension managers was evenly divided on whether companies could afford the additional capital cost of moving to a CDC plan.

However, only a minority, 24%, agreed that the implementation of CDC meant that the Netherlands was abandoning its duty of care to its employees, and a majority, 60%, agreed that solidarity and collectivity would remain the most important principles for the Dutch collective system.

Tielman said: “The response shows that the Dutch trend of migration to CDC will continue but it is not the ultimate solution. The next challenge for the market is to collaborate in developing a new Dutch style pension system that is future proof.”