Dick Kamp: After the transition, optimisation begins

January 20, 2026

_{This column was originally written in Dutch. This is an English translation.}

By Dick Kamp, Director of Pensions, Investment and Risk, Milliman Pensions

With the transition to the new pension contract, pension fund administrators are taking on new tasks and responsibilities. One of the most important is optimisation: continuously improving business operations in order to carry out the social partners' mandate more effectively. This requires not just isolated measures, but a structural and integrated approach.

What does optimisation entail?

Optimisation means strategically and systematically adjusting the pension fund's business operations in order to improve the services provided to members and employers. This encompasses five key areas:

• Governance, including behaviour and culture within the organisation
• Management of outsourcing to external parties
• Pension administration and associated processes
• Asset management and investment activities
• Communication with members and employers

Culture as the foundation for optimisation

1) A culture of continuous learning

Successful optimisation starts with the right culture. A culture of continuous learning is essential: employees and directors must continuously develop, embrace new insights and be willing to question existing working methods. This means investing in training, encouraging knowledge sharing and creating space for experimentation and innovation.

2) Feedback culture in which mistakes can be discussed

A healthy feedback culture is crucial for optimisation. This means that mistakes are not swept under the carpet, but are discussed as learning opportunities. Managers and employees must feel safe to raise issues, make suggestions for improvement and ask critical questions. This openness leads to faster identification of opportunities for optimisation and prevents small problems from turning into major risks.

3) Safe reporting environment for incidents

A safe reporting environment for incidents forms the backbone of a learning organisation. Employees must be able to report incidents, near misses and areas for improvement without fear of blame or sanctions. These reports are gold mines for optimisation: they show exactly where processes are faltering and where improvement is possible. Managers who create such an environment lay the foundation for structural improvement of their organisation.

Administrative optimisation: faster, better, more reliable

1) Automation as a driver for improvement

An important aspect of optimisation lies in the automation of administrative processes. By digitising and streamlining manual tasks, pension fund managers can achieve multiple goals at once:

• Error reduction and speed: automated processes are less prone to errors than manual operations and can operate 24/7. This means that participants receive faster assistance with their questions and requests.
• Increased self-reliance: by making more information available automatically and creating user-friendly self-service options, participants can operate more independently. For example, they can more easily arrange their retirement, request a value transfer or adjust pension arrangements in the event of divorce.
• Better data quality: automated systems ensure more consistent and reliable data, which forms the basis for better decision-making and service provision.

2) Enhanced control and service provision

These improvements lead to higher overall service provision and give the board more control over the organisation. Directors can better monitor how processes are running and where further optimisations are possible.

Asset management: optimisation for better results

1) Risk-return optimisation

In the field of asset management, optimisation offers opportunities to improve risk-return ratios and better integrate ESG objectives. This takes place at two levels:

• Instrument level: continuous evaluation and adjustment of individual investment instruments to ensure that they contribute optimally to the portfolio objectives.
• Asset manager level: ongoing assessment of the performance and added value of external asset managers.

2) Operational excellence in lifecycle management

A crucial aspect is the optimisation of operational processes in which pension administrators, asset managers and fiduciary managers work together. The aim is to periodically adjust portfolios to agreed lifecycles so that the actual exposure to investment risks for different age cohorts is as close as possible to the intended exposure.

The dynamic nature of optimisation

1) Continuous development

Optimisation is not a one-off exercise, but a continuous process. This is due to ongoing developments on various fronts of the pension scheme:

• Development of the expected pension outcome per age cohort based on the (adjusted) feasibility test against the agreed ambition
• Legislation and regulations that are constantly evolving
• Social changes that impose new requirements
• Financial markets that remain in flux
• Technological advances that offer new opportunities
• Pension sector that continues to develop

IST-SOLL analysis as a compass

In order to optimise effectively, pension fund managers need a clear view of:

• IST position: the current state of affairs in all aspects of business operations
• SOLL position: the desired future situation and optimisation opportunities
• Participant's perspective for action: realistic and achievable steps to move from IST to SOLL

The ecosystem as a success factor

1) Collaboration as the key to success

Effective optimisation can only be achieved through intensive collaboration within the pension fund ecosystem. This ecosystem – consisting of administrators, asset managers, advisors, regulators and other stakeholders – provides crucial information on all three components: current situation, desired situation and action perspectives.

2) Active role of the administrator

Although the pension fund administrator is not alone in this process, he or she does bear ultimate responsibility. This means that administrators must actively set up the infrastructure and maintain the relationships necessary for successful optimisation.

3) Shared responsibility

Each part of the ecosystem has a responsibility to understand how optimisation works and how it can contribute to further improvements in collaboration with other players.

From theory to practice: start small, think big

Optimisation is no longer a luxury, but a core competence that every pension fund manager must develop. The new pension landscape requires managers who not only supervise, but also actively steer towards continuous improvement of processes, services and collaboration.

The challenge lies not in coming up with optimisation initiatives – there are plenty of those – but in making conscious choices about where you, as a board, focus your limited time and attention. So start small, with one specific area for improvement, but think big about optimisation as part of your administrative identity.

Successful optimisation starts with recognising that the current way of working can always be improved, followed by the courage to take that first step. The question is not whether you are going to optimise, but how you can make this a structural part of your management style. Ultimately, it is not the perfect strategy that determines the difference between managers who are ahead of the curve and those who lag behind, but the willingness to get started.

This is the forty-seventh column in a series on risk management. The series aims to encourage readers to consider risk management as an integral part of

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