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- Through your employer: you may convert part of your gross salary into an occupational pension, and your employer adds 15% of the converted amount where it saves social security contributions.
- From 2027: the Altersvorsorgedepot pays state allowances on an ETF-based pension depot, up to €540 a year plus €300 per child.
- Your own depot: an ETF savings plan has no allowances, no lock-in and moves with you if you leave Germany.
The statutory pension covers part of your income in old age, and for anyone who arrives in Germany mid-career it covers less. The gap is yours to fill. Expats have one question that locals rarely ask: what happens to this money if I move on? The answer differs by product. For most people the flexible base is an ETF savings plan with a low-cost broker.
Brokers for an ETF savings plan
Both brokers offer ETF savings plans. Compare their costs and features before you open an account:
| Stock exchange: | Gettex |
|---|---|
| Order price: | €0.99 |
| Stock exchange: | Lange & Schwarz Exchange |
|---|---|
| Order price: | €1 |
Remark
Advertising notice: provider links in this overview are affiliate links — we receive a commission from the provider for sign-ups made through them.
Neither broker opens accounts for US tax persons. The broker comparison covers what US citizens can do instead, and the ETF savings plan guide explains how to pick an ETF.
Which option first?
| Option | State support | Access to the money | If you leave Germany |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occupational pension (Betriebsrente) | Employer subsidy, contributions free of tax and social security within limits | Paid out at retirement | Stays yours under the vesting rules and pays out later |
| Altersvorsorgedepot (from 2027) | Allowances, tax deduction, tax-free growth | Payout from 65 at the earliest | Allowances must be paid back if you retire outside the EU or EEA |
| Rürup pension (Basisrente) | Large tax deduction | Only as a lifelong monthly pension | Contract continues, the pension is taxed as income |
| ETF savings plan | Tax-free saver’s allowance on returns | Any time | Moves with you |
| Sources: Company Pensions Act, Income Tax Act, pension reform act 2026, Federal Ministry of Finance, retrieved 8 November 2026. | |||
A sensible order for many employees: take any employer offer that includes a subsidy, use the Altersvorsorgedepot up to the amount that earns the full allowance once it starts, and put everything else into a normal ETF portfolio. Planning to retire outside Europe? Then weight the flexible ETF portfolio more heavily.
Occupational pension through your employer
Every employee has the right to convert up to 4% of the pension contribution ceiling from gross salary into an occupational pension (Entgeltumwandlung). If your employer offers a pension fund or Pensionskasse, the money goes there. Otherwise you can ask for a direct insurance (Direktversicherung). Contributions up to 8% of the ceiling are free of income tax, and up to 4% also free of social security contributions. Where the employer saves social security that way, it must add 15% of the converted amount. In 2026 that means up to €4,056 a year free of both, and up to €8,112 a year free of tax.
Changing jobs does not cost you what you built up. A pension financed from your own salary is yours from the first euro. An employer-funded promise is yours once it has existed for three years and you are at least 21 when you leave. Compare costs and guarantees before you sign.
The Altersvorsorgedepot from 2027
From 1 January 2027 the state subsidizes a new kind of pension depot invested in funds and ETFs. It takes over from Riester for new contracts. Existing Riester contracts keep their old rules, unless you sign a new contract from 2027 on, which moves all of them to the new rules.
- Who gets the allowances: employees in the statutory pension, civil servants who consent, and new from 2027 self-employed people under 67 who file a tax return. People who only pay voluntary contributions and minijobbers who opted out do not qualify on their own.
- The allowances: 50 cents per euro on the first €360 you pay in, 25 cents per euro up to €1,800, so at most €540 a year. Up to €300 a year per child with Kindergeld. A one-off €200 if you are under 25 at the start of the year. You must pay in at least €120 a year.
- Tax: contributions up to €1,800 plus allowances are deductible, and the tax office automatically applies whichever is better. Gains are tax-free while you save, and the payout is taxed as income.
- Rules of the product: up to €6,840 a year per contract. A standard depot from each provider with total costs of at most 1.0% a year. Payout starts between 65 and 70, with up to 30% as a lump sum.
- If you move: retiring outside the EU or EEA counts as harmful use, and the allowances and tax relief must be paid back.
Providers have announced products for January 2027. The calculator shows what your contribution, allowances and tax refund could grow to, next to the same money in a normal ETF depot.
The calculator is a simplified model of the rules from 2027. Return and costs are your own assumptions, and the result is not tax or investment advice.
Rürup pension (Basisrente)
The Rürup pension works like a private extension of the statutory pension. In 2026 you can deduct up to €30,826 as a single person, or €61,652 as a married couple, from your taxable income. Your statutory pension contributions count toward the same limit, so employees have less room than the self-employed. In exchange the money is locked in: it pays only a lifelong monthly pension and cannot be cashed in, sold or inherited as capital. The payout is taxed like the statutory pension. It suits high earners and the self-employed who want the tax saving now and are sure they want an annuity later.
Your own ETF portfolio
A broad ETF savings plan has no state allowance, but also no rules about when and where you may use the money. Capital gains and dividends are taxed at the flat capital income tax of 25%, with the first €1,000 a year tax-free for a single person. For expats who may leave Germany, this is the part of a pension that travels without paperwork. The investing guide covers the basics.
Bottom line
Start with what your employer offers, then decide whether the Altersvorsorgedepot fits your plans for retirement, and build the rest in your own ETF depot. If you might retire outside Europe, keep the subsidized share small.
Part of the German pension system. Related: statutory pension · pensions for the self-employed · pension taxes.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can open several, but only two contracts signed from 2027 on receive allowances. From the third new contract onward there is no state support.
Yes, if you are eligible yourself. Your spouse needs a contract of their own and has to pay in at least €120 a year. The base allowance for them is capped at €175 a year and depends on what you pay in.
Yes. You give three months’ notice to the end of a quarter, and the money moves to the new contract. In the first five years the old provider may charge at most €150 for the switch, after that nothing.
No. Securities from a normal depot cannot be transferred. Only the capital from an existing Riester contract can be moved over, as cash.
Sources and legal basis (as of 8 November 2026)
Sources and legal basis (as of 8 November 2026)
- Company Pensions Act (BetrAVG), § 1a: right to salary conversion, employer subsidy of 15%; § 1b: vesting.
- Income Tax Act (EStG), § 3 No. 63: tax-free contributions up to 8% of the ceiling; Social Insurance Remuneration Regulation (SvEV), § 1: free of social security up to 4%.
- Pension reform act of 26 May 2026 (Altersvorsorgereformgesetz, Federal Law Gazette 2026 I No. 156): allowances, eligibility, product rules of the Altersvorsorgedepot from 2027; Federal Ministry of Finance, FAQ on the reform of private pensions (in German), including repayment when retiring outside the EU or EEA.
- Income Tax Act, § 10: Rürup pension, deductible amount and product rules; Deutsche Rentenversicherung, maximum amount 2026 (in German).
- Income Tax Act, § 32d: flat tax on capital income; § 20: saver’s allowance.
- Providers’ own pages on their Altersvorsorgedepot plans and on accounts for US tax persons (Scalable Capital, Trade Republic), retrieved October and November 2026.
Broker data: the providers’ price lists and our own product database. The 2026 limits for occupational pensions are our own calculation from the contribution ceiling.