A clear definition of property in Pensions & a legal analysis of an (in)complete Pension contract

On Wednesday December 7, Netspar will host a taskforce at Radboud University in Nijmegen regarding the above subject. More information on the program and paper can be found after this.

A legal analysis of an (in)complete pension contract Petra van Straten (RU) Abstract: The redesign of the Dutch pension system requires adjusting the pension contract. Adjusting the pension contract is often referred to as "making the pension contract more complete". The Dutch economical literature on pensions emphasizes that the incompleteness is mainly due to the absence of agreement on risk-sharing. For instance in cases of financial deficits or surpluses. In this respect the pension contract can be made more complete by adding ex ante agreements on the distribution of risks. This paper analyses the legal side of an (in)complete pension contract. I will analyse whether a pension contract can be legally complete at all taking into account that it is concluded for a long term. The goal of this research is creating clarity on the meaning of a legal and economical (in)complete pension contract. Lastly, I will make clear what the legal implications will be when applying an economical complete pension contract. This paper analyses the legal consequences of a complete pension contract implemented by an industry-wide pension fund. A large part of the Dutch (working) population participates in an industry-wide pension scheme. In that case the employer and employee representatives (also called social partners, design the pension contract. Subsequently they transfer the pension contract to the industry-wide pension fund in order to have it implemented. Towards a clear definition of property in pensions Jop Tangelder (RU) Abstract: The definition of property can cause confusion. In the legal field there are several definitions of property, which differ when compared. In this research I will be discussing the legal definition of property as included in the Dutch Civil Code (1), The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (2), the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (3), and economic property (4). Beside the different legal definitions of property, economists use the term property as well. The use of property in economic research differs greatly from the legal term. The economic definition of property will be included in the paper as well. Extended abstract