Perhaps it is something you would prefer not to think about, but if you die this may have major financial consequences for your partner and children. Your salary will stop and even if your partner has his or her own income it remains to be seen whether this will be sufficient to get by on. After all, most household outgoings such as mortgage or rent will continue as normal. Fortunately, arrangements will usually have been made to cope with the eventuality of your death.
If your children are under the age of 18 or if your partner is more than 45% incapacitated for work, your partner may possibly be entitled to surviving dependants’ benefit under the Dutch Surviving Dependants Act (ANW). This entitlement is conditional on your partner having no income or an income below a certain level. If you would like to learn more about the ANW benefit, please consult the website of the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) (Social Insurance Bank). The ANW benefit is paid by the Social Insurance Bank.
If your employer has included surviving dependants’ pension in its pension scheme, your partner will receive a partner’s pension in the event of your death. And your children will be entitled to an orphan’s pension. Together we call these the surviving dependants’ pension.
If you die and your relationship meets the partnership conditions set out in your employer’s pension scheme, your partner will receive a partner’s pension. We will pay this for the rest of your partner's life, even if your partner later finds a new partner. Examples of partnership conditions are:
To find out how much partner’s pension has been insured for your partner, please visit mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl (Dutch only) or check your latest uniform benefit statement.
In the event of your death, your children below a certain age are entitled to an orphan’s pension. Payment of the orphan’s pension stops when the child reaches that age. What age that is can be found in your Pension1-2-3 (Dutch only).
To find out how much orphan’s pension your children will receive and until what age, please visit mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl (Dutch only) or check your latest uniform benefit statement.
Your partner has only a limited chance of being eligible for ANW benefit from the state. This is why some employers have insured benefit for such eventualities. This cover is compulsory in some cases and voluntary in others.
In the event of your death, we will pay the pension to your partner. The sum is equal to the statutory survivors’ benefit paid by the state. The amount is fixed and will not be increased once it is in payment. The surviving dependants’ benefit pension is paid in addition to any benefit received from the state and in addition to the partner's pension. Your partner will receive this until no later than the date on which he or she reaches statutory retirement age. Check out your Pension 1-2-3 (Dutch only) to find out whether you are insured for this and, if so, how.
There are two kinds of surviving dependant’s pension: with benefit accrual and risk-based.
Pension with benefit accrual
If you have a surviving dependants’ pension with benefit accrual, you will retain entitlement to the accrued surviving dependants’ pension when you change jobs. This may be lower than the surviving dependants’ pension that would have been paid out in the event of your death during your employment. For this reason, please check whether the surviving dependants’ pension is still adequately insured after leaving the company. In your new job, it is possible that the surviving dependants’ pension may be fully covered again. You can transfer the accrued surviving dependants’ pension to your new employer’s pension scheme. This is known as transfer of accrued benefits.
Risk-based pension
If your surviving dependants’ pension is insured on a risk basis, your surviving dependants are assured of receiving surviving dependants’ pension as long as you remain in the service of your employer. If you cease working for your employer and die before the retirement date of the pension scheme, your partner and children will no longer be insured. To prevent this, you can arrange to convert part of the retirement pension into partner’s pension if you stop working. We then pay this partner’s pension to your partner if you die before your retirement date. If you leave your employment, you will receive more information from us about this.
If you wish to be sure that your partner and children will be left comfortably off in the event of your death, you can take out supplementary term life insurance.
You can take out extra term life insurance that will pay out in the event of your death. In this way, you can make extra money available for your surviving dependants. If you would you like to know more, please contact an independent adviser.
Term life insurance and your mortgage
If you and your partner own your own home, you will probably already have a term life insurance linked to the purchase. In the event of your death your mortgage will be repaid in full or in part, thereby reducing or even eliminating the monthly outgoings.
Together with your surviving dependants we go through four steps to arrange for payment of the partner’s pension, orphan’s pension and/or (for ex-partners) special partner’s pension.
If you were already in receipt of a retirement pension, we stop this payment.
They receive from us a questionnaire and letter containing information about their partner's pension, orphan’s pension or special partner’s pension.
Once the data in the questionnaire are complete, we enter them in our system.
Your surviving dependants will receive payment of their partner’s pension, orphan’s pension or special partner’s pension around the 25th of each month.
There are circumstances in which your partner and any children may not be entitled to surviving dependants’ pension in the event of your death, for example, because you have left the service of your employer and the surviving dependants’ pension is insured on a risk basis. If that is the case, we notify your partner and any children by letter. If they disagree with this decision, they can lodge a complaint.
If you want to find out whether your partner’s pension and orphan’s pension will be sufficient to support your loved ones and whether a term life policy could be a useful supplement, you should contact an independent adviser. Such advisers can give you customized advice. Discuss beforehand with your adviser what you will be charged for the advice and what exactly any additional service entails.
Please feel free to contact us at any time. We are available by telephone on business days from 8.30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on +31 (0)30 257 42 66. Alternatively, you can complete the contact form. We are here to help.