Pension administration is a process that should be done carefully and professional. We’ve seen too many times that employers make mistakes during this process which can lead to lots of problems. Mistakes in pension administration are easily made, think of the calculations of salary of their employees. When you calculate the salary of your employees you have to keep in mind the 13th month, holiday bonusses and other add-ons to the salary. Sometimes the insurer asks to include the bonusses and sometimes they want it excluded. As you might expect, this can result in a messy pension administration that takes time to resolve for a professional. This is why we recommend to let it be done by us. When you give us permission to do the administration you can hold us accountable, so you won’t lose any sleep at night on these matters.
Pension Communication in professional administration
Communication towards stakeholders is legally mandated under the Future Pensions Act (WTP). Who informs them with what information and when? This involves the tax authorities, pension provider, participants, accountant, shareholders, and professional payroll pension administration.
Coordinating the pension consequences upon retirement, disability, and death of an employee requires direct technical action and careful guidance. Providing information to and preparing meetings with the Works Council (OR) or employee representative body (PVT) is also essential. A well-prepared employer can manage professional pension administration seamlessly with our support. Documenting pension texts in employee guides and employment conditions can prevent surprises. The intended pension scheme must be consistent with the promise in the employment contract, the employee handbook, and the Pension 1-2-3 information for the employee.
Professional pension administration surrounding policies, pension agreements, and execution agreements require clear logistics, archiving, and reporting. Monitoring premium setting, settlements, and handling of employees’ own contributions provides better insight into costs and remittance. Processing and checking additional coverages such as WGA gap/excess, ANW gap, and premium waiver in case of disability is important. Pensions are often part of a comprehensive package of employment benefits, and these must be administratively well processed.
Finally, cost savings on accountants, avoidance of frustration with the insurer, responding to employee inquiries, research work, and long waits at the pension insurer can all be avoided with professional pension administration.
Logistics collective flat rate professional pension scheme administration
- Pension administration guidance and control of value transfers. Some employees want to know the ins and outs of the advantages and disadvantages. Their good right but within a company, the practical knowledge to handle that efficiently often lacks. And the pension providers only provide colored information.
- Adjusting pension scheme to salary changes. It seems so simple. But our experience is that there is at least one case among every 10 employees that needs technical attention.
- Personal changes at an individual level. Address change, a different partner, children, value transfers, disability, etc. Passing on the mutation is often just a fraction of the time investment. Personal guidance and explanation are also often rightly seen as necessary.
- Legal consequences of legislative changes. Over the past 10 years, there have been almost monthly changes that sometimes had far-reaching consequences. The upcoming change of the pension target age to 68 years is another next step.
- Financial cost control collective flat rate pension scheme contract. Once a pension provider is chosen, there is a constant need to limit costs. Letters from insurers with “please sign below” including an professional pension administration invoice packaged in a current account pension overview, are seen way too often.
- Insurance consequences of product changes. Do the new product properties of a collective pension scheme still match the promise? Without control, the responsibility for good corporate pension management lies with you as an employer.
- Coordination of pension consequences of retirement, disability, and death of an employee. At that unexpected moment, immediate technical action is needed but especially also careful guidance is wise.
- Information provision to, and preparation of, works council meetings. For a well-prepared employer, a pension scheme does not have to be a problem. We provide the substantiation and guidance through thorough corporate pension management.
- Recording pension texts in staff guides and employment conditions. It is often a surprise if the intended pension scheme, the promise in the employment contract, the staff handbook, and the Pension 1-2-3 information for the employee, are in line.
- Professional pension administration logistics around policies, pension agreements, and implementation agreements. We help with clear logistics, archiving, and reporting.
- Control of premium setting, settlements, and processing of employee’s own contribution. Do you want a better insight into the costs and the remittance? Come talk to us.
- Processing and control of additional coverages such as WGA-gap/excess and ANW Gap and premium exemption in case of disability. Pension is often part of a comprehensive package of employment conditions. It is important that these matters align and are administratively easy to process.
- Information provision to payroll administrator. Calculating, for example, a 30% rule or the correct own contribution also proves to be a challenge for experienced payroll administrators.
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Own contribution for employees in professional pension administration
If employees have an own contribution, it must be administratively processed well. Adding or saving up is a popular way for employees to supplement their pension pot, but the bill, if not the valuable time, usually falls to the employer. Without careful supervision, this can cost employers a lot of money.
Administrative guidance and control in these transfers are important for a healthy system. Some employees want to know exactly what the pros and cons are and always have small questions they otherwise first ask the employer. Although this is their right, within most companies the practical knowledge to handle this efficiently is often lacking. Pension providers usually give only biased information.
The new structure for surviving dependants
In the current situation of professional pension administration, surviving dependants run the risk of a significant income reduction if the employee dies. To reduce that risk before the retirement date and to make the WTP surviving dependants’ pension for the employee less complex, various changes have been proposed. The most significant change may be the amount of the surviving dependants’ pension for the employee. It will soon become a standard fixed percentage of the last earned salary. This is much clearer than in the current system where the amount depends on the years of service and is a percentage of the pension base. The partner pension in the new scheme may be a maximum of 50% of the salary. The orphan’s pension may amount to a maximum of 20% of the salary. The orphan’s pension has a fixed end age of 25 years.
Redefinition of the term ‘Partner’ in pension administration
The partner pension will soon apply to all partners with a fixed definition of the term ‘partner’. This is the spouse, the registered partner, or the adult person with whom a joint household is maintained. The latter is subject to various conditions.
The Orphan’s Pension administration
The orphan’s pension, part of the surviving dependants’ professional pension administration for the employee, also changes. The standard is that the orphan’s pension is paid out until the age of 25. The amount of the orphan’s pension is a maximum of 20% of the salary, unless there are ‘double orphans’ where both parents are deceased. In that case, the orphan’s pension is a maximum of 40% of the salary. Compared to the amount of the partner pension, these percentages mean a doubling of the orphan’s pension compared to the current situation.
Amount of the special partner’s pension
The amount of the special partner’s pension in professional pension administration differs between pension schemes, and may depend on whether you die before or after the retirement date. Some pension schemes feature a partner’s pension on a risk basis, which means that your former partner will not receive a special partner’s pension. The insurer will notify you and your former partner, if applicable, of the amount of the special partner’s pension.