Should I sign a Riester contract now or not? A difficult question, the Bavarian consumer advice center has to admit that. The proposals of the working group on Riester reform are not yet very concrete and they are only proposals. The right reform should not be decided until next year, since a lot can still change.
Do not cancel old Riester contracts
Anyone who already has a Riester contract should keep it. Because the reform will only apply to new contracts. The federal government has also emphasized that the conventional state support for low earners, children and young professionals should remain.
However, it is always worth checking the current contract. Quitting is really advisable in the rarest of cases. If in doubt, you can switch providers or shut down the contract.
New contracts with Riester rarely make sense
If you are now thinking about doing something for your retirement provision, you should calculate carefully. According to the Bavarian consumer advice center, it is only worthwhile for people with a very low income who do not have to pay much more than the minimum deposit of 60 euros themselves, but who still get the supplements.
Or families with many children who receive the child supplement. But they also have to look around carefully with which offer they want to Riester. Because banks and insurance companies have significantly reduced their offerings in recent years. In principle, experts recommend a fund savings plan or bank savings plan rather than pension insurance, which incurs significantly higher fees.
Alternative: own initiative in old-age provision
Anyone who earns a little more and would now like to get into old-age provision should either wait for the reform or they can start saving “privately”. For example with an ETF savings plan.
Perhaps after the reform there will be an opportunity to transfer the money accumulated up to that point to the new pension model.
Consumer advocates disappointed with Riester reform proposals
A missed opportunity – this is the unanimous verdict of consumer protection groups on the working group’s reform proposals. This is not a fundamental reform of the Riester pension. Only the product range is expanded and the so-called guarantee of existence is softened. This guarantee should ensure that savers at least get back the money they paid in and the state subsidy.
In times of low interest rates, however, this was always at the expense of returns. There should be more choices here in the future.
Riester proposals take human behavior too little into account
The reform proposals do not go far enough for many, primarily because they do not take into account the latest findings in behavioral economics. So consumers need easy choices and a little pressure. For example the so-called opt-out rule. Employees are automatically included in a supplementary pension and must actively object if they do not want it.
The Scandinavian countries in particular have had good experiences with such concepts. Only very few people opted out of the supplementary pension.
2023-07-23 08:59:05
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