Changes to investments in February 2024

At BeFrank we invest pension contributions. After all, in the long run, returns on investments are nearly always higher than for returns on savings. In doing so, we closely examine the returns we can obtain and the associated risk we incur. At the same time, we believe it’s important to invest sustainably where possible, while focusing on people and the environment. Our investment experts continuously study the investments so that we achieve a good investment mix. We will be adjusting our investments again in February.

Introduction of an additional fund to absorb interest rate fluctuations

Is an employee nearing their retirement date? Then we want to keep the pension as stable as possible. We do this by investing in matching funds, among other things. These matching funds reduce the influence the interest rate has on the pension purchase. In mid-February, we will introduce a fourth matching fund in the Active, Passive and Sustainable Lifecycle: the Liability Matching Fund (XXL). This way we will keep the expected pension benefits even more stable. Because the amount of the definitive pension benefits depends not only on your pension capital but also on the interest rate.

Read more about how matching funds work here.

New: investing in projects with a social cause

At BeFrank we believe in the importance of investing responsibly – of making an impact on people and the environment while retaining the (expected) returns. We are already investing in so-called green bonds, whereby we invest in environmentally friendly and sustainable projects. Projects such as expanding the Leaseplan electric vehicle fleet and making PostNL’s postal delivery more sustainable. In mid-January, we also started investing in social bonds in the Passive and Active Lifecycle. These are bonds issued for raising capital for projects with a social cause. We want to make a positive social impact with these. Currently social bonds are primarily issued by financial institutions. The investments in social bonds will replace the investments in ‘regular’ corporate bonds. The expected returns of social bonds will therefore remain the same.

We will not adapt the Sustainable Lifecycle to this, because we already improved this lifecycle last year. Read more about how we improved the Sustainable Lifecycle here.  

Rebalancing of the Lifecycles

The purchase of the new matching fund (XXL) will change the investment mix in all three Lifecycles. To ensure that the investment mix of all employees is a good fit for their age and investment profile, we will initiate a rebalancing. We do this every year on the employee’s birthday, and now we will also do it for all employees in February.

Read more about our investment policy