If you get married or enter into a registered partnership, we will automatically be notified. If you die, your partner is entitled to a partner’s pension.

Read more about the partner's pension

If you live together with your partner but the partnership is not formally registered, we will not automatically be given your partner’s details. To arrange a partner’s pension for a partner you live with, register them with us. For your partner to be eligible for a partner’s pension, the two of you need to have a notarised cohabitation agreement. You also have to have lived together for at least six months and your partner must not be related to you.

Read more about the partner's pension

If you have a child, we will automatically receive a notification from the municipality where you live. You do not need to personally inform us of their birth. If you die, all your children are entitled to a surviving children’s pension until they turn 25.

Read more about the surviving children’s pension

By law, any former partner is automatically entitled to a portion of the pension you accrued during your marriage or registered partnership with them. A separation agreement, however, could result in a different arrangement. Dividing your pension between you and your partner following separation is known as ‘verevening’ in Dutch. If your former partner dies, the portion of your pension they received (or were going to receive) is returned to your pension.

Alternatively, you can choose what is called ‘conversie’ in Dutch. In that case, the portion of your pension your former partner is entitled to, together with the partner’s pension they are also entitled to, is converted into a pension entitlement of their own. This means that your former partner can decide themselves when their pension starts. If your former partner dies following ‘conversie’, you are not entitled to the pension they received (or were going to receive).

Your former partner is also automatically entitled to the partner’s pension you accrued up until the date you separated from them. You can, however, make other agreements regarding this. Your former partner can, for example, waive their entitlement to the partner’s pension.

If you advise us of any agreements you have made, we can ensure your pension is divided correctly. If you do not advise us, you will have to take personal responsibility for dividing your pension.

If you and your former partner lived together but the partnership was not formally registered, they are only entitled to the partner’s pension that was accrued during the relationship. You must, however, have had a cohabitation agreement which specified them as a beneficiary.

Advise of separation

We automatically receive notification when you move, except when you move abroad or move house while already abroad. In either of these cases, provide us with your new address and, if necessary, email address. This ensures we can continue to contact you to provide news on your pension.

If you are unable to work to such a degree that 80 % or more of your former salary is now unattainable, we will pay your pension contributions for you. This ensures you continue accruing pension. If the degree to which you are unable to work changes so that you are again able to earn up to 80 % of your former salary, we will stop paying contributions. You will then no longer accrue a ‘contribution-free’ pension.

Read here how you can advise us that you are unable to work or that the degree to which you are unable has changed.

If your salary increases or decreases because you work more or fewer hours, then the pension you accrue will increase or decrease too.

If you are posted abroad by Witteveen+Bos, you will continue to accrue a pension as if you were still working in the Netherlands.

If you leave Witteveen+Bos, you will no longer accrue a pension at Witteveen+Bos’s pension fund. Unless you choose to take it with you, the pension you already accrued will remain at the fund.

The partner’s pension and surviving children’s pension promised in the event of your death will also cease to apply. If you die, your partner and children will only receive the partner’s pension and surviving children’s pension that you had already accrued.

You can view the pension you have accrued with Witteveen+Bos’s pension fund at any time on mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl.

Pension transfer

If you start working at another employer and accrue a pension there, you can transfer the pension you accrued at Witteveen+Bos’s pension fund to your new pension provider. Doing this is called ‘pension transfer’ (or ‘waardeoverdracht’ in Dutch).

Carefully compare your old and new schemes before deciding whether pension transfer is right for you. You can do this using Pension 1-2-3. If choose to transfer your pension, notify your new pension provider. Your new provider will contact us. You will then receive a proposal and can decide whether or not to transfer your accrued pension.

If you decide not to transfer your pension, it will remain at Witteveen+Bos’s pension fund. You will start receiving this pension from the moment you chose for it to start.

Note that if you have accrued less pension than approximately € 500 gross per year, we will automatically transfer your pension if we can. Very small pensions (less than € 2 per year) will become void.

We automatically receive a notification if you die. We will check whether you had registered a partner with us. We will then let your partner know how to apply for the partner’s pension and, if applicable, the surviving children’s pension. If you have children over 18 years of age, we will contact them directly.

Read more about the partner's pension and the surviving children’s pension