Longevity for both men and women in the Netherlands is still increasing, according to the Actuarial Society’s (AG) latest bi-annual estimates. 

Although the AG’s new observations largely tally with its prognosis in 2012, it said it found a strong increase in life expectancy for newborns, with girls and boys living 5.2 and 3.4 years longer than 65 years olds. 

At the moment, a 65-year-old male has 19.7 years ahead of him, which would have increased to 22.9 and 25.5 years in 2039 and 2064, respectively, the AG said. 

It said the corresponding figures for 65-year-old females were 22.8, 25.6 and 27.8 years. 

However, for 65 year olds, the AG found a slight drop in life expectancy for both men (0.6 years) and women (0.1 years), compared with its 2012 figures.

This, it said, would have little impact on Dutch schemes’ coverage ratios.

However, it added that funding could increase by approximately 0.7 percentage points at schemes where participants consisted wholly of older males. 

In other news, Groenten en Fruit, the €224m pension fund for the vegetable and fruit processing industry, is to join Landbouw, the €10bn pension fund for the agricultural sector, at year-end.

Groenten en Fruit has more than 3,000 active participants, 3,370 pensioners and more than 9,000 deferred members, affiliated with 56 employers.

Its administration costs were €252 per participant, whereas Landbouw reported costs of €101 per participant.

Following the merger, Groenten en Fruit is to leave provider Syntrus Achmea for Aegon subsidiary TKP, Landbouw’s current provider.

At July-end, the funding of Groenten en Fruit and Landbouw was 115.2% and 109.6%, respectively.

Both schemes have not granted any indexation in recent years years.

Lastly, the €886m pension fund for the Telegraaf Media Group (TMG) has said that its employer intends to introduce a new individual defined contribution plan with an insurer, replacing its current collective DC arrangements.

According to the scheme, TMG prefers a new pension plan, as the current is under pressure from rising longevity and low interest rates.

It also wants to offer more flexibility.

TMG stressed that accrued pension rights would be unaffected by the planned changes.

At the moment, the employer is discussing its plans with the works council (OR), which has demanded an explanation for the need of a change.

At year-end, the Telegraafpensioenfonds had 6,755 participants in total, of which 1,295 were pensioners.

Its funding at the end of August was 110.5%.

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