> PENSION COUNCIL
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Pension council member Constant Herfst:
‘The fund is doing well, the funding ratio is high’
The pension council looks over the board's shoulder. Is the board performing doing well? What could be improved? The pension council gives an opinion or advice on this. Constant Herfst looks back on 2021. Three years ago, Constant was asked by the board of the Captains' Association, of which he is a member: would you like to become a member of the pension council? Constant was keen to join. Since then, together with the other members, he assesses and advises the board of Bpf Koopvaardij. How did that board perform in 2021? Constant: “The board did an excellent job in 2021, as it did in previous years. The pension council is very satisfied. The fund is doing very well; the funding ratio is hovering around 125%. That is high compared with other funds. We also believe that the board communicates well with the people it serves. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were meetings all over the country where people were updated and where they could submit their questions. That worked very well, so the council has encouraged the board to start those meetings again.” Clear terms Another point on which the board scores well is having confidence in specialists. “Investing is a complex business. The risk is that you all start chattering and then follow the sound of your own chatter. That does not happen at Bpf Koopvaardij. The board provides the framework and starting points and then leaves it to the experts: this is what we want our cake to taste like and it’s up to you to make it.”
The communication between the board and the pension council also receives nothing but praise. “We are not experts, so we asked the board to instruct us very clearly on what is expected of us. They do this excellently, in clear terms. And we can keep on asking them anything.” Of course, there are also points for improvement, such as the lack of women on the board and on the pension council. “I know that 21 per cent of all members, former members and pensioners are women. So they are ready and waiting. We may have to make a little more effort to find them.” The new system The pension council is closely monitoring the transition to the new pension system. “We are focusing, for instance, on the surviving dependants’ pension. Seafarers are often in a traditional situation: the husband spends years at sea, the wife brings up the children at home, with perhaps some work on the side. If the husband dies, there must be an appropriate pension for the wife. Furthermore, seafarers often have sideline activities when they are on leave: in their child’s business, temporarily looking after a market stall for someone, working on a book publication. This often continues even after retirement. So there must be scope for this in the new system. We are therefore constantly reviewing the situation and have asked the board to update us regularly on developments.” ←
About the pension council
The Bpf Koopvaardij pension council consists of thirteen representatives of employees and former employees, pensioners and employers. The council assesses the board's policies and policy choices and gives advice on various subjects.