Roel takes you through the choices currently on the board tables at pension funds. Should the investment risk be scaled back in the run-up to the transition to avoid the funding ratio falling at the last minute? Or, as a long-term investor, should you not do that? And when should the shift to the investment mix of the new pension system take place? Is that before the transition moment? Or after? And should it be done all at once or in small steps? And last but not least: should we be concerned about market impact if many pension funds in the Netherlands make a similar adjustment to their investment mix within a short period of time?

Dr. Roel Mehlkopf is a pension fund advisor at Cardano. Roel is part of the client team, where he helps pension funds to manage their financial risks and prepare for the upcoming pension transition. Roel also works parttime at Tilburg University as a postdoctoral researcher. He teaches a course on pension economics for master students. His research is focused on lifecycle investing and risk sharing. Before joining Cardano, Roel worked in the public sector, including the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. Working for state sectretary Jetta Klijnsma, he contributed to the legislation for variable annuities (in Dutch: Wet Verbeterde Premieregeling). Roel graduated cum laude in financial econometrics in 2006. He obtained a Ph.D in Finance from Tilburg University in 2011 and was a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.