At Pension & Co, we manage a Multi-Employer pension fund that centralizes pension schemes for multiple companies. This approach ensures efficiency, consistency and economies of scale in pension management.
The introduction of corporate governance policy guidelines in 2007 marked a turning point, prompting Belgian pension funds to adopt a more professional and structured approach in managing pension plans.
In 2019, the Belgian government has further increased regulatory requirements with the implementation of the IORP II, the new European directive for IORP (Institution for Occupational Retirement Provision, the Belgian legal structure for pension funds).
Smaller pension funds however, do not always have the necessary budgets and time investment to comply with the ever-increasing requirements. Regulatory requirements continue to put pressure on the financial results and ask too much management time for the Sponsoring Undertakings.
The Multi-Employer fund ‘Pension & Co IORP’ offers the perfect solution to respond to these challenges. Pension & Co allows you to not only maintain the benefits of a pension fund (flexibility, transparency, private investment policy, full allowance of the return) but to also reduce the extensive overhead burden and corresponding budgets.
Pension & Co was founded by Conac in 2010. Conac is an independent Belgian service provider with over 30 years of experience and a strong focus on managing supplementary pensions (second pillar). As the market leader in Belgium, Conac offers customized solutions and a wide range of services, including actuarial services, pension administration, accounting and reporting, HR communication, governance management, risk management, Multi-Employer pension funds, customized software and more. Conac serves both large multinationals and local companies, using certified processes (ISAE 3402) within an ISO 27001-certified IT environment. As a member of the global Abelica Global network, Conac follows the latest developments in the field of consultancy for IORP.
For more information about Conac: Home.
A Multi-Employer fund is an autonomous pension fund set up under the legal form IORP (Institution for Occupational Retirement Provision, the Belgian legal structure for pension funds) in Belgium and under the authority of the regulator FSMA.
Within this structure, several ‘separate funds’ can be created. Assets of the different sponsoring undertakings are legally ringfenced. This means that there is no solidarity between funds even when there are shortages in one separate fund, and that each individual plan has its own, private and independent asset allocation.
The main benefits to move to the Multi-Employer pension fund Pension & Co are the following:
No more organizing and preparing Board of Directors meetings, no need to follow up on the governance principles, statutory organization, etc.
General management costs and costs regarding the control functions and governance principles are dispersed.
Assured continuity towards affiliates and asset management.
The financing plan, the investment policy and the reinsurance policy can be filled in by the Plan Sponsor. The Asset Manager(s) and Reinsurer(s) can be chosen by the Plan Sponsor.
Each separate fund has its own accounting and a full transparent reporting. The reporting on the level of the General Assembly, representing all Plan Sponsors, is limited to a consolidated reporting.
Pension & Co has built up extensive experience in:
The General Assembly represents all participating companies and meets once a year at least.
The Board of Directors will contain at least one Independent Director.
Each separate fund can establish operational bodies. These bodies are in charge of aspects which are specific for each Plan Sponsor: an investment committee and/or a daily Management Committee. All members of these Committees are to be nominated by the Plan Sponsor.
The possibility exists to organize a Social Committee per participating company, in which employer and employees are represented. Aspects with regard to regulation can be discussed here.
We refer to the bylaws of Pension & Co IORP (Institution for Occupational Retirement Provision, the Belgian legal structure for pension fund) for more detail on this subject.
The control functions are:
The control functions are centrally organized, allowing costs to be spread over the different participating companies. If there are plan-specific checks to do, these will be charged separately. Deloitte (Accredited Auditor), BDO (Internal Auditor), AG Insurance (Compliance Officer) and Conac (Actuarial Function, Risk Manager) have been appointed for the control functions (situation as of January 1, 2025).
The DPO function (Data Protection Officer, GDPR) is taken up by Conac in close collaboration with the DPO office of AG Insurance. The DPO Responsible will also perform the function of Safety Consultant with regard to the minimum safety standards as published on the site of the Crossroads Bank for Social Security.
Pension & Co also benefits an ISAE 3402 certification (type II) applicable with a very extended scope. The ISAE 3402 certification is asserted by EY.
Switching from an independent IORP (Institution for Occupational Retirement Provision, the Belgian legal structure for pension fund) to a Multi-Employer solution needs clear guidance and counselling. Pension & Co has an extensive expertise and collaborates with a number of partners to assure a smooth transfer.
Together we will draw up an action plan taking into account all specific aspects of your pension plans, your timing and all regulatory and legal requirements.
Pension & Co participation also needs to be formalised. Hereunder you can find an overview of the documents and policies related to Pension & Co participation.
The statutory and general documents such as the Management Agreement, the Financing Plan and the Statement of Investment Principles (SIP) are drawn up centrally. There is, however, an addendum per separate fund for each of these documents, which guarantees the complete privacy of the company’s specific agreements.
For each Sponsoring Undertaking or group of Sponsoring Undertakings a separate entity is established, in accordance with article 80 of the law of IORP’s (Institution for Occupational Retirement Provision, the Belgian legal structure for pension funds).
Each Sponsoring Undertaking, and its affiliates and beneficiaries, will only have access to the documents relating to the overall management of Pension & Co IBP (such as the Articles of Association, the global part of the Management Agreement, of the Financing Plan, of the SIP, of the Governance Charter, etc.) and the documents relating to the separate fund to which the Sponsoring Undertaking belongs. No Sponsoring Undertaking, nor its affiliates and / or beneficiaries, have any right to view documents relating to separate funds other than those to which the relevant Sponsoring Undertaking belongs.
Governance principles, such as for example the business continuity policy, internal and external communication, outsourcing policy, charters for internal audit and compliance, are organized centrally. Specific issues such as a signature or a payment authority are set up on the level of each plan and separate fund.
A complete administrative outsourcing will be pursued.
For the outsourcing of the actuarial services, accounting services, pension administration services, governance and statutory administration, partners will be appointed. Partnerships will be evaluated and reviewed yearly.
Within Pension & Co, each Sponsoring Undertaking needs to make his own decisions and choices concerning the outsourcing of responsibilities related to the Custodian and the Asset Manager, respecting the central outsourcing policy.
The reinsurance of certain risk coverages can be done by a reinsurer, which is appointed on demand of the Plan Sponsor.
The Sponsoring Undertaking has full flexibility to be able to determine the investment policy itself while being compliant with legal requirements and limitations. This means that the Sponsoring Undertaking has 100% control over the investment policy, keeping in mind that the Board of Directors of Pension & Co remains ultimate responsible for following-up compliance with prudential legislation.
Pension & Co IBP is a Multi-Employer pension fund that aims to offer The Sponsoring Undertaking contributing within the separate funds significant flexibility, including the ability to develop its own investment strategy. The Board of Directors believes that sustainability risks play a role in the investment decision-making process. However, it does not impose specific provisions on the separate funds regarding the implementation of these risks. The Sponsoring Undertaking of the separate funds independently determines the extent to which they wish to integrate sustainability risks into their investment decision-making process. Consequently, Pension & Co falls under article 6 of the SFDR.
Fill out the form for more information about Pension & Co or Conac, or get in touch with one of our staff members.