Free Online Summit (17 - 21 March 2025): BELGIUM MONEY WEEK 2025
Organized by FIRE Belgium and hosted by Sebastien Aguilar.
Agenda
Free Online Summit on the Belgian Pension System: 17 to 21 of March 2025
FIRE Belgium is organizing Money Week 2025, featuring 5 experts to unveil and discuss the Belgian Pension System.
5 evenings, 5 experts, 5 talks:
- 17/03 8 PM: What’s wrong with the Belgian pension system? And how can we improve it? – with Pierre Devolder, emeritus professor at Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, leading expert in actuarial science and pension theory, member of the Academic Council of Pensions 2015-2020
- 18/03 8 PM: Will you afford to retire? How good (bad?) is the Belgian Pension System, compared to other systems in Europe? – with Sébastien Commain, Senior Research & Policy Officer at BETTER FINANCE, co-author of the “Will you afford to retire” report.
- 19/03 8 PM: Everything you need to know about Pillar 2 of the Belgian Pension System
with Ann Verlinden, CEO of PensioPlus, the Belgian Association of Pension Institutions - 20/03 8 PM: Index investing, an evidence-based solution to support the Belgian pensions system? – with Sébastien Aguilar, founder of FIRE Belgium and index investing educator
- 21/03 8 PM: How can business owners and independents in Belgium optimize their pension? – with Karel Van den Eynde, Public Affairs Manager at Liantis and self-employed pension expert
To get access to all 5 events, register using the form below. We’ll send you the details by email.
Meet the Event Partners
Meet the Speakers
Pierre Devolder
Professor Emeritus at UCL (UCLouvain Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences)
Pierre Devolder is an emeritus professor of mathematical finance and actuarial science at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) (Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Science, ISBA/LIDAM). He has a PhD in mathematics from the University of Brussels. He is also actuary and academic member of the Belgian Institute of actuaries (IABE). His main research activities are focused on stochastic finance, life insurance and pension theory. He has published 6 books mainly on pension and finance and a lot of papers in various actuarial journals. He gives regular courses at the universities of Brussels and Rabat. He has been member of the official Belgian “Conseil Académique des Pensions” and is founding partner and chairman of the board of REACFIN (actuarial consulting company ).
Sébastien Commain
Senior Research & Policy Officer at BETTER FINANCE
Sébastien Commain is Research and Policy Officer at BETTER FINANCE. He specialises in Financial Services Regulation and Capital Markets Research. In particular, Sébastien coordinates BETTER FINANCE’s comparative research on the real return of long-term savings and pensions and is in charge of representing individual investors’ interests to European Union institutions in matters related to life insurance, pensions and other long-term retail investments.
Sébastien holds a Masters’ degree in European affairs from Sciences Po Paris and a Ph.D. in political science from the Université du Luxembourg. Before joining BETTER FINANCE, Sébastien worked as an interest representative, a role in which he initially developed a strong taste for financial regulation issues as well as advocacy and policy analysis skills. He then turned to academia, working at the College of Europe for several years, before undertaking a Ph.D. on the influence of financial interest groups in EU and international policy making and the reform of bank capital requirements.
Ann Verlinden
CEO of PensioPlus, the Belgian Association of Pension Institution
As an actuary, Ann Verlinden has been very engaged with pension funds since the beginning of her career. Enriched with the experiences of a consultant in pension fund management and employee benefits, Ann joins PensioPlus as a senior advisor in 2012. She distinguishes herself within both national and European working groups, amongst which the national commission for supplementary pensions, the Institute for Actuaries in Belgium, PensionsEurope and AEIP. As the CEO, Ann takes the responsibility for the sector’s lobbying activities at national and European level for the set up and coordination of working groups, the organisation of training and numerous activities, amongst which the annual Financial Seminar. Within PensioPlus, Ann takes the lead in files such as IORP II, stress tests, the pension tracking service, and many others.
Karel Van den Eynde
Public Affairs Manager at Liantis
Karel Van den Eynde is an expert in social security and pension solutions for self-employed professionals in Belgium. He specializes in advising entrepreneurs on optimizing their pension strategies, including government schemes and additional pension options such as the VAPZ, POZ and IPT. Karel has extensive experience in navigating the complexities of the Belgian pension system for self-employed individuals and is committed to enhancing the financial security of entrepreneurs. His role also involves providing insights on legal reforms and trends in the self-employed sector.
Karel is a Public Affairs Manager at Liantis, a trusted partner for self-employed professionals, offering expert guidance on social security, pensions, and HR administration to help entrepreneurs secure their financial future and focus on growing their business.
Meet the Host
Sébastien Aguilar
Founder of FIRE Belgium
Sébastien Aguilar is an educator and community builder in the areas of personal finance and investing.
He reached financial independence (and early retirement) at 33, solely via saving and index investing and since then spends most of his time with his wife and 2 boys.
He has been helping people start index investing since 2015. In 2019 he founded FIRE Belgium, a fast-growing community of more than 9500 people today who help each other take control of their finances to live better lives.
Sébastien is the lead instructor of the Index Investing Online Course, where he takes people from zero to a fully optimized and automated personal investment system.
FIRE Belgium
FIRE Belgium is a personal finance education community and business based in Belgium.
We are here to help you earn, save and invest better so that you can build financial security and financial freedom, one step at a time.
We use simple and effective methods to take control of our finances and progress towards Financial Independence (and efficient retirement).
By focusing on education, FIRE Belgium defeats the conflict of interest that plague the investment industry.
FIRE Belgium teaches investing based on the knowledge and experience developed over decades by individual investors like you and me, not by the industry.
We derive our investment strategy from the Bogleheads community which started in 1998 and we adapt it to the Belgian context (market structure, taxes, brokers, etc.)
This means that we optimise for what works for the investor (not for the industry): long-term performance, minimum fees, appropriate asset allocation, long-term mindset, simplicity and automation.
We see money and investing as tools to live better lives, not as an end in itself.
FAQs
▶ Who is this event for?
People who live in Belgium or are from Belgium living abroad, who are interested in learning more about personal finance. If you would like to know more about how to earn more, invest better and better understand the pension system, this event is for you.
▶ How do I get the links to access the talks?
After submitting the form, you’ll receive an email with the details of each talk and the links to the Zoom meetings.
▶ Will replays be available?
The talks will be recorded and we hope to release the replays as part of our video podcast The FIRE Belgium Show. You can find it on YouTube, Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Podcast.
▶ How much does it cost?
The Money Week events are all FREE! Personal finance is something that should be taught in school. We want this to benefit as many people as possible.