Do you know what a POZ is? This is a pension agreement for the self-employed. A brand new pension vehicle that mainly one-man businesses and the liberal professions, people who do not have a company, can enjoy. And how the POZ works, that's what Frederic Dedeurwaerder from VGD knows.

The POZ is a new measure, is it a good one?

That is a good question. In any case, it is an additional way for a self-employed person to accrue a pension, albeit a self-employed person without a company. Thanks to this system, he can build up a supplementary pension and receives a tax reduction for this.

And as a result, there is less discrimination between self-employed workers and entrepreneurs themselves?

Indeed, that is true. The basis between all the self-employed is the same. Both can benefit from a free supplementary pension for the self-employed. The entrepreneurs or the self-employed with a company can also build up a pension by means of an individual pension promise. This is not possible today for the self-employed without a company. With the new legislation or the new pension agreement for the self-employed, they can also build up a supplementary pension in order to level out the difference between the self-employed and the self-employed without a company to some extent.

You guide entrepreneurs in building up a good pension plan. How do you start with this?

It all starts with a good inventory. A pension consists of four pillars. We have the statutory pension and we have the supplementary pension, including the pension agreement for the self-employed, IPT, NVAPZ. The third pillar is pension savings and long term savings, and then there is a fourth pillar. That is actually the capital you have today, the company you have, your money in the bank. If it is a real pension pillar, I will leave that in the middle as well. The first two pillars can be called up by every citizen, since the end of 2017, via mypension. You will then know your pension amount, including what you can expect from your supplementary pensions. We are mainly looking at the fourth pillar because it is precisely these first, second and third pillars that we need to see whether they are sufficient to maintain living standards after retirement age.

You have already mentioned the word IPT a number of times, the individual pension commitment. That is a way to increase your pension significantly, and is it being used eagerly?

Yes, yes, that is true, because this is a nice addition to the statutory pension on the one hand. On the other hand, it is also a cost for the company, as a result of which ultimately fewer taxes are paid.

Is the government doing well with regard to pensions?

They do certain good things, and they also do certain less good things. The good things are: there is less discrimination between employees and the self-employed. Now as well, the self-employed are being brought into line with one another, those with and those without a company. On the other hand, I also notice that citizens are increasingly obliged to build up their own pensions. Just look at the pension agreement for the self-employed. In fact, we are asking the self-employed to build up their own pension.

The government also knows a lot about mypension. Does that entail a risk?

Through the mypension database and the underlying databases, the government does indeed know perfectly who is making what pension provisions and for what amounts. We therefore hope that sooner or later it will not retain the amounts or the budget in those provisions in order to close a certain gap in the budget. This has already happened in the past with pension savings.

Entrepreneurs, but also ordinary citizens, are sometimes afraid. Are we going to see that money again? Is that a well-founded fear?

Partly yes, partly no. The 2008 banking crisis has, of course, shocked us for a while. It is, of course, true that it is uncommon for an insurance company or a pension fund to go under head. However, money invested in an insurance institution is subject to the risk of the insurance institution. If you do not do this and you keep the money in your company, it will remain subject to the risk of your company. And it is up to the entrepreneur to determine which of both risks is the greatest.