“The Pension Planner was an eye-opener to my colleague. He is now considering early retirement!”

Having worked for 40 years, Rob Vlek decided to start his retirement on 1 September. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, though. “You want to be sure the choices you make are best for your situation.”

Throughout his career at ING, Rob had seen many sides of the company and fulfilled many positions. In his latest job, he worked as a credit assessor. And now it was time for him to assess his own pension! Would early retirement be possible for him? What choices did he have in terms of variable benefits? Who would be available to help him?

Scenarios
Rob: “I used the Pension Planner to study the pension options that were available to me. I made calculations based on various scenarios. What emerged was that my best option would be to retire two years early. I also opted to have higher pension benefits paid out until my Dutch state pension (AOW) starts. I was aware that this would mean my pension benefits after my AOW date would be lower for the rest of my life.”

Simply call
“If you've been working at ING as long as I have, you have pensions in two different pension funds. ING CDC Pensioenfonds and Pensioenfonds ING, the latter of which is now a closed fund. I opted to have both of these funds start paying out my pension in September. Before making my decision, I contacted the Pension Desk several times. I had al sorts of questions, varying from how to fill out the form for reporting your pension options to how much the final amounts would be. I would advise everyone to simply call them if you run into an issue. They’re very helpful and easy to reach.”

Tips
“My tip for the pension fund: my retirement started in September, but I didn't receive the final confirmation until early September. That could have been sooner! People want to know what to expect.”¹

My tip to colleagues: make sure you look into your pension well ahead of time, so you know which pension options tie in best with your situation. I am still in close touch with one of my former colleagues. The Pension Planner was an eye-opener to him, and now he is considering early retirement too!”

¹ You will receive a preliminary pension statement four months before your retirement date. The final statement is sent to you in the month your retirement starts. We do this to ensure that the latest changes are included and that the amounts are accurate.