For the first time, the Pensions Ombudsman has made advice public without anonymizing the name of the pension fund concerned. Since 2019, the Ombudsman can use this power if the pension fund does not follow the advice.
“The decision of the bpfBOUW pension fund is not reasonable. People have now run into problems due to poor communication from the fund,” says Henriëtte de Lange, the Pensions Ombudsman. She normally publishes advice anonymously.
The complaint she received was from a couple about the so-called exchange of the partner’s pension. When an employee retires, he can choose to receive more retirement pension himself in exchange for less or no survivor’s pension for the partner.
During a conversation with their mortgage adviser, the couple found out that they had opted for this and that there is no partner’s pension in the event of the husband’s death.
Pension fund is not cooperating
They ask bpfBOUW to reverse that exchange, because the communication and the consequences were unclear. For example, they did not understand from the letters that no partner’s pension would be paid in the event of death.
“Despite the couple wanting to repay thousands of euros to bpfBOUW, the pension fund is not cooperating. Based on the regulations, I understand that the fund will not reverse the decision, but the couple made the decision with incomplete information,” says De Lange.
The AFM supervisor cannot say anything about the supervision of individual supervisors. They do, however, believe that there is a responsibility with the funds. “It is up to pension funds to ensure that their information matches their participants. And is personal, concrete and correct.”
According to bpfBouw, communication was clear enough. “Several letters have been sent that the partner’s pension is zero. The number was literally stated therein,” says David van As, director of bpfBOUW.
‘You can’t insure a burning house either’
“And if we do reverse the exchange, we will open the door for people to make improper use of it. People who suddenly become ill can also submit such a request. You can’t insure a burning house afterwards either,” says from As.
According to De Lange, you can look at this in different ways. “I don’t think that’s a strong argument in itself. BpfBOUW needs to put itself in the shoes of people much better. If an exchange is chosen, it is the fund’s duty of care that people really know for sure what the result will be.”
The Pensions Ombudsman has previously dealt with a similar complaint. That pension fund decided to cooperate and to reverse the exchange after her advice. “That’s also the only reasonable thing you can do.”
