Your Pension Is Moving to the New Dutch System: What Your Letter Means and What to Check

What is changing

The Future Pensions Act (Wet toekomst pensioenen) has applied since 1 July 2023. Every workplace pension scheme has to move to the new rules by 1 January 2028 at the latest. Many funds switched on 1 January 2026; ABP, the largest fund, switches on 1 January 2027.

• Your pension becomes a personal pot: the contributions paid for you plus the investment returns on them.
• There is no fixed promised amount any more. Your pension can rise faster when returns are good, and fall when they are not, with buffers to soften this.
• Contributions count the same at every age, instead of mostly building up at the end of your career.
• What stays: the scheme is still run by your pension fund, contributions are still paid by employer and employee, and the AOW state pension is not affected.

The letter: your transition overview

Before your fund switches, it sends a transition overview (transitieoverzicht): your expected pension under the current rules and under the new ones, side by side. First a provisional version, later a definitive one. ABP sends the provisional overview from late September 2026 to active members, from late October to former members, and to everyone by 30 November 2026.

What to check, in this order

1. 1
   Your personal details

   Date of birth, marital status and partner. Errors here change every amount further down.

2. 2
   The periods you built up pension

   Compare them with your employment history at this fund. A missing job or a gap is the most common error.

3. 3
   Your status

   Working (active), former member (gewezen deelnemer) or retired. The rules differ for each.

4. 4
   Partner and survivor pension

   Check whether a partner pension is included and for whom.

5. 5
   Gross or net

   The amounts are usually gross. Tax and the health insurance contribution still come off.

6. 6
   Compensation

   If the change costs you pension, mostly people in mid-career, the fund may add a one-off compensation to your pot. The overview shows whether you get it.

If something is wrong

Report it to your pension fund straight away, with proof such as payslips or annual statements (jaaropgaven). At ABP the data comes from employers, so errors in your employment periods are corrected through your employer. You cannot object to the switch itself as an individual: that decision is made by your employer, the unions and the fund. What you can and should do is make sure your own data is right.

Mijn Pensioenoverzicht (mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl, with DigiD) shows all your Dutch workplace pensions and your AOW in one place, which helps to spot a job that is missing.

If you leave the Netherlands

• Your built-up pension stays yours. It normally stays invested in the Dutch fund and is paid to you abroad from your pension age.
• A transfer to a pension scheme in another EU/EEA country is possible if both schemes agree; it can take months. A transfer outside the EU is rarely possible.
• Your AOW state pension is separate: it builds up 2% for every year you live or work in the Netherlands between age 15 and the AOW age. Years abroad reduce it, unless you insure voluntarily with the SVB.
• Keep your address up to date with the fund, and keep your Dutch DigiD if you can: you will need it to see your pension.