At the end of last year, so-called transition statements were sent out. That was the first time participants directly experienced the transition. Did it lead to increased call volume?
“Yes, we did receive extra calls at that time, partly because participants didn’t always understand the statement. It was a rather long letter with a lot of legally required information.”
In ten months, APG’s next three pension fund clients—bpfBOUW, SPW, and Pensioenfonds Schoonmaak—will transition. Are you sharing your experiences and lessons learned?
“Yes, we are sharing our insights both internally and within the broader pension sector. The contingency plans we used for the first two pension funds will also be used for the next transitions, largely under the guidance of the same colleagues. We are currently evaluating the lessons learned, and any conclusions will certainly be shared with the other funds.”
How have you experienced the past few months?
“If you don’t like dealing with challenges, this isn’t the job for you. That being said, I think we can be incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished together. We have successfully transitioned from one pension system to another and implemented many new systems in the process. If the only downside is that there’s a bit of daily hassle, I’d say that’s more than manageable.
Beforehand, I told my team: starting January 1, we will need to be highly flexible in how we work. Processes will need constant adjustments, affecting when and where we work. It’s a tough challenge, but I still see smiling faces around me every day. That’s the strength of this team—we’re very close-knit. That’s what got us through this.
It also helps that the number of participants we transitioned—just over 200,000—is still manageable. If necessary, we can manually process certain cases, such as pension applications. That’s why we deliberately chose to transition a small and medium-sized fund first—the risks were still manageable.
Next, a fund like bpfBOUW, with one million participants, will transition. At that scale, everything must be fully automated and function flawlessly. That’s the advantage of going first: the mistakes we make now and the improvements we implement in our processes and systems will help ensure that the larger funds can also transition smoothly.”