No risk, no gold - Going for Gold Dinner with Dick Sluimers

No risk, no gold: that summed up Dick Sluimers' message to AmCham members and guests at the Going 4 Gold dinner held last February 10 and hosted by Minister of Trade Frank Heemskerk. Dick Sluimers is CEO of APG Group – one of the largest pension fund administrators in the world.


Dick Sluimers, APG Group

Sluimers outlined the role of risk in pension administration and the continued need to focus on the long run. Pension funds took a hard knock in 2008 and are just barely beginning to recover. Still, in spite of the pressure to minimize risk in pension investment – 61% of people today believe that pension funds should put all money on a cash deposit – Mr. Sluimers outlined why risk taking would continue to be part of long term pension investment strategy. The return on risk adverse investment will simply not generate sufficient pension income – unless pension contributions are increased to unacceptable proportions of present income. Coupled with increased life expectancies, pension fund assets as well as pension liabilities are at stake. Tough decisions must be taken to deal with the fact that we are all living longer.

The photos of this event are online.