In contrast to their peers in other countries, Dutch pension funds registered a positive performance in 2012, achieving the highest returns against the lowest costs.
Canadian benchmarking firm CEM said that Dutch schemes, representing almost 6m participants and more than €600 billion of assets, reported returns of 14,3% on average over the period, while pension funds in Europe and the US returned 12,5% and 11,4% respectively.
CEM’s report also stated that Dutch schemes generally invested less in equity and more in fixed income – in particular in euro-denominated government bonds – than other schemes. Their investments in hedge funds, tactical asset allocation (TAA) and private equity were the lowest.
Dutch schemes have also been found to have contracted out more active and passive asset management than schemes elsewhere.
Please read the Investments & Pensions Europe article here.