The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now over a month old. We look with horror at the terrible events. Our sympathy goes out to all Ukrainians, both there and in the Netherlands. The impact of the war on the country and its inhabitants is of course enormous. However, we are also considering the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on our fund. With regard to the management of our ASP plan, we have taken a closer look at the impact on the plan and your investments.
A lot of movement in the financial markets
The contribution in the ASP plan is invested. We do this in shares and bonds. One of the consequences of the conflict is that the financial markets are in turmoil. Stock market prices fall and gas and oil prices rise, causing inflation to rise further.
Direct impact
The ASP investments are managed by Vanguard and are closely monitored. After all, investing in pensions is not without risk. That is why we invest cautiously and spread our investments. For example, we have a small part of our investment portfolio within the Emerging Market fund (less than 0.8%) in Russian investments. The Emerging Market fund is a small part of Life Cycle investing, with Self-directed investing this depends on the participant's choice. Meanwhile, we have decided to divest our investments in Russia (and Belarus). At the moment, trading is still prohibited, but as soon as it is possible, we will sell these shares. Of course, we are following the rules regarding EU sanctions.
Focus on the long term
The Life Cycle investment strategy is designed for the longer term with an appropriate risk-reducing phase Once you get closer to your retirement date, you switch to more secure government bond investments. Our experience shows that financial markets recover over time. We see that short-term developments, such as this crisis, often have less influence in the longer term. We saw this, for example, at the start of the corona crisis. The sharp fall in share prices at the beginning of 2020 was more than made up for in 2021. Of course, we cannot make any predictions about the effects of the current situation.
No need to adjust policy
We are keeping a close eye on the situation in Ukraine and the unrest in the financial markets. With our eye on the long term, we do not yet see any reason to adjust our investment policy. If this changes, you can read about it on our website.