Completing Dutch pension reform

Recently, the government and the social partners in the Netherlands agreed on how to reform the scheme of occupational pensions in the coming years. In June 2019 they agreed on the main principles of reform, in June 2020 they elaborated these principles in more detail. We argue that this reform is one in a series of reforms that step-by-step transform the final-pay benefit pension contract that was dominant 20 years ago into a collective defined contribution contract. This paper provides a historical overview of these reforms and how they connect to developments in the financial position of pension funds and trend-based developments in the demography and the economy.