NETHERLANDS - The tools for pensions communication need to be updated and should include an interactive uniform pension statement (UPO), according to the Dutch Financial Markets Authority (AFM).

Where the new Pensions Register only indicates the future pension benefits for the state pension AOW and the second-pillar pension, an interactive dashboard should also include third-pillar rights accrued with insurers, argued the organisation's director Harman Korte this week at the Pension Forum conference in Rotterdam.

"Workers should be enabled to find out at what age, and under which scenarios, they could reach the amount they think they need for retirement," he said.

Korte said the new Pensions Agreement, which is scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2014, needed to be accompanied by information about the core qualities of the individual's pension plan to allow for a proper comparison with other schemes.

It should include information, such as the size of the pension claim and the accrual rate, he said.

The AFM director added that he would request the authority allow for the possibility of alerts for individual members in "risk groups", should they be found to be accruing too low a pension.

The communication watchdog will also provide clarity to pension providers about which advice they can legally offer within their licence, according to the director, who further announced a pilot project for a financial helpdesk.

During the Pension Forum, the director said recent surveys had confirmed there was still a wide gap between workers' expectations for a pension and reality.

"No less than 53% don't know their own pension arrangements, a quarter of the surveyed employees is lacking any interest in the subject, and an equally large percentage doesn't have a clue about the amount of their future pension," he said.

He added that 85% of the workers did not understand their UPO without additional information.
 

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