The pension scheme for Dutch accountants (Accountancy) is to liquidate and place €327m of its assets with insurer Aegon.

Accountancy said that it wanted to outsource management of its remaining assets to Stap, the new general pension (APF) of insurer Aegon, run in co-operation with its subsidiary TKP.

Accountancy ran into trouble running its own fund last year. The combination of a smoothed-out contribution, a lack of initial assets, and a lower than expected interest rate caused its funding ratio to plummet.

As a consequence, the pension fund had to apply rights cuts of 25% and 13.3% over 2015 and 2016, respectively, in its collective defined contribution plan.

In addition, it has slashed annual pensions accrual from 1.75% in 2015 to 1.05% in 2017. Premiums for the average salary scheme are to rise by 40%.

Jan Raaijmakers, Accountancy’s chairman, attributed the non-mandatory sector scheme’s decision to liquidate mainly to the decreasing numbers of employees.

“As large sponsors have left, premium income has dropped. Moreover, employers increasingly prefer defined contribution arrangements,” he pointed out.

Currently, Accountancy has 2,450 active participants at 172 affiliated companies, down from 4,600 and 190, respectively, in 2014.

Raaijmakers indicated that further cuts in the assets accrued under Accountancy’s own management would be inevitable, as joining a multi-scheme compartment in Aegon’s APF requires a coverage ratio of 105%.

“After that, however, the chances of addition rights discounts are slim, while there will be even a perspective for indexation,” he added.

According to Raaijmakers, Accountancy was considering joining the APF’s compartment with an indexation target of no more than 25% of inflation.

The pension fund had already outsourced its administration to TKP.

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