Brand New Day Pension Account

This is a post in the pensions series, if you haven’t read the previous posts I recommend you to start with The Dutch pension system and Pension accounts in the Netherlands.

Investing money in the stock market for your pension is one of the best ways to do it, and the younger you start you have more years for that money to compound and grow. This post is about one of the accounts that exist in the Netherlands in which you can invest money for your pension. The post is long so you can skip to the section of your interest.

As I explained in the post Investment account for begginners the Band New Day pension account invests money in the stock market. Both accounts are similar in terms of investment vehicles, but the pension account has tax benefits. What you deposit in the pension account is tax deductible and the belastingdienst (tax office) refunds a portion of what you deposit in the pension account when you file your tax return the following year.

Pension account of Brand New Day (Pensioenrekening-beleggen)

As with the Brand New Day investment account, the pension account offers well-diversified equity and bond index funds. In this account you can select three different ways to invest:

  • Model portfolios (Modelbeleggen/modelportefeuilles)
    • In this investment account mode, you can choose one of 5 investment models based on your profile, from very aggressive to very defensive. This means that your money will be invested in funds comprising more than 20,000 stocks and bonds. It is also possible to opt for automatic risk reduction which means that some 15 years before retirement age the profile will automatically become defensive little by little to preserve the money you have accumulated.
  • Portafolios modelo verde (Groene modelportefeuilles)
    • In addition to the standard model portfolios, at Brand New Day you can also invest in sustainable model portfolios. This means that you would automatically be investing in sustainable stocks and/or bonds, thus significantly reducing the CO2 emissions of your investments.
  • Inversión libre (Vrij beleggen)
    • In this investment account mode you decide which funds to invest in. You can choose between 8 equity funds and/or 6 bond funds.

In the case of model portfolios, depending on the type of profile, the amount of stocks and bonds in which the money will be invested will vary. You can select to have the portfolio automatically rebalanced. This is a unique service that Brand New Day offers free of charge and occurs once a year.

In the table below, you can see how many stocks and bonds each investment profile has for both the standard and green models. And at the end of the post you can see the Brand New Day funds available and what each one invests in.

ModeloPorcentaje AccionesPorcentaje bonos
Muy ofensivo o agresivo (Zeer offensief)100%0%
Ofensivo o agresivo (Offensief)70%30%
Moderado (Neutraal)50%50%
Conservador (Defensief)30%70%
Muy conservador (Zeer defensief)10%90%

How does the Brand New Day pension account work?

There are two ways to invest, deposit manually whenever you want or a scheduled deposit, where at the end of each month, Brand New Day will take the money from your bank account and invest it for you within 5 working days of your deposit. There are no minimum amounts and it is an easy and automatic way to invest for your retirement. Your money will be invested in different funds depending on the investment model you have chosen. The account risk is automatically reduced as your retirement date approaches.

What are the returns?

In the table below you can see the average performance of each model since 2010.

ModeloMuy OfensivoOfensivoNeutralDefensivoMuy Defensivo
Promedio7.72%6.09%4.73%3.32%1.85%
20106.28%5.64%5.00%4.37%3.73%
2011-5.50%-2.79%-0.08%2.62%5.33%
201213.05%11.01%9.98%6.95%4.92%
201324.54%18.79%13.04%7.28%1.53%
20148.94%8.93%8.91%8.90%8.88%
20151.05%0.86%0.66%0.46%0.27%
20167.26%6.31%5.35%4.39%3.44%
201715.60%12.21%8.82%5.43%2.04%
2018-9.21%-7.19%-5.18%-3.16%-1.14%
201922.75%18.84%14.94%11.03%7.13%
202010.61%8.11%6.83%5.49%4.08%
202122.50%14.92%9.86%4.80%-0.25%
2022-15.97%-15.77%-15.63%-15.49%-15.35%
2023 (hasta junio)11.44%8.47%6.49%4.51%2.54%

What are the costs?

The Brand New Day pension account costs are:

  • Opening fee: €45 deducted from the first deposit.
  • Service charge: 0.44% per year (of the total money in the account). These are charged every quarter, if there is no money in the cash account, some of the fund with the most money invested is sold to pay this fee.
  • Fund costs: If you invest in the moddelbeleggen funds you pay between 0.15-0.17% per year for the green portfolios (Groene modelportefeuilles) you pay 0.25%, If you have the free investment mode, you will pay between 0.15% and 0.26% in annual fund costs, depending on the funds you choose.
  • Deposit fees: a 0.50% deposit fee is paid for each deposit you make. For example, if you deposit €100 into your account, you are charged €0.50 in deposit fees. These costs are automatically deducted from each amount you deposit into the account. There are no additional charges for exchanging or selling investments.
  • Spread and swing pricing: In addition to the costs outlined above, there is the possibility of incurring minimal charges when investing in Vanguard or Northern Trust funds. These costs are so small that they are hardly noticeable, but they are important to mention. The value of the funds changes slightly. This procedure is common to all banking and investment institutions.

To open your account or learn more about the service you can click on the banner below. By doing so, you will help support the blog and future articles.

What about taxes?

Everything you have in this account is not considered for box 3 (savings and investments), and every year, the belastingdienst will give you back a good part (between 37% and 49%, depending on the tax bracket you are in) of what you deposit.

At retirement age

When you reach retirement age, you cannot withdraw the money from the account all at once. You have to use it to take out a pension annuity (pensioeninkomen). This can be right there with Brand New Day, or with another bank or insurance company. There is no charge for transferring the money to the provider of your choice when the time comes.

The money from the pension income will be considered as income and will therefore be subject to tax. The amount of tax you pay will depend on the tax bracket that corresponds to your total pension income. You can decide (within limits) when you buy a retirement income.

What if I move out of the Netherlands?

If you move to another country in the European Economic Area, there is no problem with the money you buy your retirement income and they will transfer your money to wherever you move to.

If you move outside the European Economic Area it is practically impossible to withdraw the money. Technically, there are two possibilities: you can either find a provider to transfer the retirement income to or you can buy the account, which means taking all the money out at once. This is not advisable as being an account that had tax benefits makes the belastingdienst apply a “penalty” of 20% in addition to taxing the account with an income tax of 52%, this means that you would be losing 72% of the money in the account in taxes.

If you do not want to abide by all the rules then you can open a normal investment account like the one mentioned in the post Investment account for beginners.

How much can I save? Jaarruimte and Reserveringsruimte

There is a maximum amount per year that you can save which is tax deductible, this amount is called Jaarruimte (annual margin), this amount depends on

To calculate your jaarruimte you can use the Belastingdienst tool (https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/nl/aftrek-en-kortingen/content/hulpmiddel-lijfrentepremie-2016-en-daarna).

It is also possible to use the jaarruimte of past years, this is called reserveringsruimte (reserve margin) and consists of the sum of the unused jaarruimte (annual margins) of the 7 years preceding the year from which the pension contributions are to be deducted.

For example for 2024 the reserve margin is the sum of the annual unused reserves from 2017. In this way, you can continue to fill a possible “pension gap”.

What are the risks?

When you invest, there is always the possibility of losing some of the money you invest; risk is always part of investing. However, investing for the long term (years) is a way to reduce the risk of losing money, and because if you start saving for your pension when you are young, the time you have to do this is many years. For example, if you start investing for your pension at the age of 30, the money you put into the account will have more than 30 years to be invested.

The longer the money is invested, the less likely you are to lose. As you see in the image below if you leave your money invested for 20 years you are sure to get a positive return. You can read more about this here and also read the Investment Risks entry.

Who is Brand New Day?

Brand New Day is a Dutch company offering savings, pension, children’s and normal investment accounts. Authorised as a bank, financial services provider and supervised by the AFM (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, Financial Markets Authority).

The money you deposit in the funds is separate from Brand New Day, so in the unlikely event that Brand New Day goes bust, the money deposited in the fund is safe. As a regulated bank, all money that is not invested is protected up to 100,000 euros.

Index funds available at Brand New Day

Brand New Day has 8 funds that invest in equities and 6 funds that invest in bonds, both with low fees. In the tables below you can see the index funds available at Brand New Day. If you don’t know what an index fund is, please read the Stock Indexes, Index Funds and ETFs post first.

Nombre del fondoEn que invierteComision anual
BND Wereld Indexfonds Hedged*1935compañias de todo el mundo0.15%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Unhedged *1935compañias de todo el mundo0.15%
BND Europa Indexfonds529 compañias de Europa0.17%
BND Duurzaam Wereld Indexfonds1251 compañias de paises desarrollados,socialmente responsables.0.17%
BND Pacific Indexfonds344 compañias de la region del Pacifico.0.17%
BND Amerika Indexfonds676 compañias de Norte America0.17%
BND Emerging Markets Indexfonds-B1295 compañias de paises emergentes en Europa Africa, Latinoamerica y Asia.0.26%
BND Small Cap Wereld Indexfonds-B3347 compañias de baja capitalización en Norte América, Europa y Asia-Pacifico.0.24%
Nombre del fondoEn que invierteComision anual
BND Euro Staatsobligatie IndexfondsBonos de gobiernos europeos denominados en euros.0.15%
BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds LangBonos de gobiernos europeos denominados en euros a largo plazo (20+ años)0.15%
BND Euro Investment Grade Obligatie IndexfondsBonos denominados en euros de empresas con calificaciones altas0.15%
BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds InflatieBonos del gobierno indexados a la inflación de los países más solventes de la eurozona.0.15%
BND Wereld Obligatie IndexfondsBonos de países e industrias a nivel mundial con calificaciones buenas0.15%
BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds KortBonos del gobierno que cotizan en euros a corto plazo (1-3 años)0.15%

*Hedged means it is hedged against the exchange rate, undhedged means it is not. You can read more about the risks associated with investments in the post Investment risks. In addition, apart from normal model portfolios, there is the opportunity to invest in sustainable funds.

In the tables below you can see in which funds each standard investment model invests:

Modelo de inversion Muy Ofensivo en Brand New Day Modelbeleggen

Fondos de acciones100%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Hedged45.76%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Unhedged31.69%
BND Emerging Markets Indexfonds11.97%
BND Small Cap Wereld Indexfonds10.58%

Modelo de inversion Ofensivo en Brand New Day Modelbeleggen

Fondos de acciones70%Fondos de bonos30%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Hedged32.03%BND Wereld Obligatie Indexfonds20.76%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Unhedged22.18%BND Euro Investment Grade Obligatie Indexfonds4.44%
BND Emerging Markets Indexfonds8.38%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds3.30%
BND Small Cap Wereld Indexfonds7.41%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds Inflatie1.50%

Modelo de inversion Neutral en Brand New Day Modelbeleggen

Fondos de acciones50%Fondos de bonos50%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Hedged22.88%BND Wereld Obligatie Indexfonds34.60%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Unhedged15.85%BND Euro Investment Grade Obligatie Indexfonds7.40%
BND Emerging Markets Indexfonds5.99%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds5.50%
BND Small Cap Wereld Indexfonds5.29%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds Inflatie2.50%

Modelo de inversion Muy Defensivo en Brand New Day Modelbeleggen

Fondos de acciones10%Fondos de bonos90%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Hedged4.58%BND Wereld Obligatie Indexfonds62.28%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Unhedged3.17%BND Euro Investment Grade Obligatie Indexfonds13.32%
BND Emerging Markets Indexfonds1.20%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds9.90%
BND Small Cap Wereld Indexfonds1.06%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds Inflatie4.50%

Modelo de inversion Defensivo en Brand New Day Modelbeleggen

Fondos de acciones30%Fondos de bonos70%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Hedged13.73%BND Wereld Obligatie Indexfonds48.44%
BND Wereld Indexfonds Unhedged9.51%BND Euro Investment Grade Obligatie Indexfonds10.36%
BND Emerging Markets Indexfonds3.59%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds7.70%
BND Small Cap Wereld Indexfonds3.17%BND Euro Staatsobligatie Indexfonds Inflatie3.50%

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