Professional care

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Professional pension is the old-age pension based on a statutory compulsory membership for independent professions. These include doctors , pharmacists , architects , notaries , patent attorneys , lawyers , tax consultants or tax agents, veterinarians , accountants and certified public accountants, dentists and each partially Psychological psychotherapists and engineers .

Professional care is provided by pension institutions set up on the basis of state law (usually legally independent institutions under public law , in some cases also special funds of the respective professional chambers). The occupational pension is strongly characterized by state or statutory legitimacy for self-administration by the professions concerned and offers its members comprehensive pension, occupational disability and survivors' pension. The umbrella organization is the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsständischer Betriebseinrichtungen  e. V., in which the pension funds have merged. Pension funds for members of parliament (for example: pension funds for members of the state parliaments of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Baden-Württemberg ) represent a special feature, as members of parliament do not have a chamber profession.

Legal position in the structured pension system

In the structured system of old-age provision, professional pension provision is to be assigned to the “first pillar”, as is statutory pension insurance . It represents a type of provision of its own, which stands independently alongside the other statutory pension systems (in particular the statutory pension insurance, from which salaried pension fund members can usually be exempted) and the forms of voluntary provision (in particular private life and pension insurance ). By virtue of their care mandate, they only include the members of the respective professional group, to whom they can offer a uniform care biography through continuous support from the beginning of their professional activity. This creates a community of insured persons with a uniform risk structure, and the regulations and benefits of the respective pension fund can be tailored to their specific care needs. The approximately four years higher life expectancy of freelancers, the typical members of professional pension funds, has a shortening effect on the calculation of the monthly retirement pension. The basic value of the pension entitlement paid into the pension fund cannot be lost by the professionals who belong to a pension fund if they become insolvent . In this respect, these professionals have a preferential position over other self-employed people who otherwise (except civil servants) only have employees who draw their pensions from the statutory pension insurance.

In some cases, social benefits are also offered for the craft or retail trade under the term "pension fund". Often these are initiatives of the local chambers or guilds, which in cooperation with a private insurance company offer various pension contracts, also for old-age provision. However, these are not professional pensions with compulsory membership, which can be assigned to the first pillar, but voluntary supplementary pensions, usually in the form of life insurance. Membership in a pension fund for the craft or retail trade therefore does not exempt from the obligation to be insured in the statutory pension insurance (Section 6 (1) SGB VI). Benefits of the pension funds of the craft or the retail trade are therefore not, unlike old-age pensions of the pension funds of the freelance, as income comparable to the statutory pension within the meaning of § 229 SGB V.

Financing the services

The benefits of the pension funds are generally contribution-based. The amount of contributions for members in an employment relationship is basically the same as that for members of the German Pension Insurance (Sections 157ff SGB VI). This tax currently (2015) amounts to 18.7% of gross income. Independent members are often only allowed to establish 2/3 membership, so that only 2/3 of the usual fee have to be paid. On the other hand, some pension funds also allow voluntary payments of up to 15/10 of the usual contribution amount (e.g. Schleswig-Holstein Pension Fund for Lawyers , Section 32 of the Articles of Association). The later benefits of the pension fund also change accordingly. According to the 2013 annual report of the Schleswig-Holstein Pension Fund for Lawyers, only 30% of the members paid the maximum amount as contributions. 4093 active members paid a total of 27.23 million euros, which corresponds to an average monthly fee of 554.40 euros. The figures can be seen as representative for lawyers' pension funds.

To finance the benefits, capital-forming processes are used that are tailored to the specific requirements of the individual pension fund: the entitlement cover process, which is also used in life insurance, and the open cover plan process, which is widespread in professional pension schemes, in which future contributions and pension claims are also included in the actuarial calculation become. The interim phase of low interest rates prompted the pension funds to reduce the proportion of investments in fixed-income securities from 70 percent in 2011 to 56 percent in 2015 and to increase the equity component from 16 to 20 percent. Many pension funds have also increased the proportion of real estate.

The professional pension funds (unlike the statutory pension insurance) do not receive any subsidies from the state, but are financed solely from the membership fees and, if necessary, the profits from the investments.

Services

In accordance with the conditions set out in their statutes, the professional pension funds generally provide retirement pensions and disability pensions to their members, as well as survivors' pensions, death grants or a lump sum payment to the relatives of the deceased members. Some pension schemes pay for 100 percent occupational disability from the first day of membership and not after a waiting period, as is the case with the German pension insurance (5 years waiting period). The amount of the pensions paid is calculated on the one hand from the personal contributions that each member has made individually and on the other hand from the economic success of the respective pension fund. The investment result is measured by the assumed discount rate . In times of low interest rates, the actuarial interest rate can fall. It also depends above all on the respective reserves , the new additions to contributors, the new additions to pension recipients, their retirement age and their life expectancy, whether pensions need to be increased or even reduced. In view of the very low interest rates that are currently being achieved in the money and bond markets, some pension funds are expanding their investments to other asset classes. These include increasing the equity quota, participating in infrastructure and energy systems, or buying your own property (both residential and commercial) for rent.

The average amount of monthly retirement pensions of the pension funds developed from 1969.76 euros in 2008 to 2077.92 euros in 2015. The old-age pension of the Nordrheinische Ärzteversorgung was 2853 euros per month in 2013 and one euro less in 2014, thus 2852 euros. New old-age pensions promised in 2013 had been reduced to an average of EUR 2,706. For comparison: The average amount paid by the German pension insurance for old-age and disability pensions after deduction of the contributions for health and long-term care insurance was EUR 866 as of December 31, 2017.

At sight

Professional pension funds are subject to the statutory control bodies of the respective federal states.

The responsible ministries of the interior and of the economy exercise legal and insurance supervision . The annual financial statements and the audit are carried out by economic mathematical experts. In Bavaria, the Bavarian Supreme Audit Office raised objections in 2008.

Historical development in Germany

The roots of professional care go back to 1923, when the oldest and now largest professional care facility , Bayerische Ärzteversorgung , was established at the urgent request of Bavarian doctors, dentists and veterinarians. The background to this was the fact that members of the liberal professions were excluded from the statutory pension scheme and that the economic crisis and inflation after the First World War had practically completely devalued private provision. The management of Bayerische Ärzteversorgung has been the responsibility of the Bavarian Insurance Chamber from the outset, and since 1995 the Bayerische Versicherungskammer -versorgung ( Bavarian Supply Chamber ). The Bavarian Supply Chamber, a higher authority of the Free State of Bavaria, is the largest public-law supply group in Germany and manages the business of twelve pension institutions, five of which are professional pension funds.

In the post-war period, further professional pension schemes were created as a result of the Adenauer pension reform of 1957 . This reform denied members of the so-called liberal professions the option of voluntary insurance in the statutory pension scheme. In order not to be completely without old-age insurance, pension institutions for the individual occupational groups gradually emerged at the state level.

Today in Germany there are 89 public-law compulsory pension institutions based on state law for members of the collective liberal professions. These are united in the working group of professional pension institutions and include the following professional groups:

Web links

Homepage of the Association of Professional Pension Institutions

literature

  • Hartmut Kilger: The jurisprudence on the law of professional care since 2008 . NJW 2010, 3137

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annual report for 2013 of the Schleswig-Holstein Pension Fund for Lawyers, p. 4 and 6
  2. ↑ Doctors newspaper, May 29, 2017, p. 14 with reference to a response by the federal government to a small inquiry
  3. ↑ Ärztezeitung, May 29, 2017, p. 14
  4. ↑ ÄrzteZeitung, December 10, 2014, p. 25
  5. ↑ Statistics of the German Pension Insurance, key figures 2018
  6. ↑ Bavarian Supply Chamber
  7. ↑ Professional pension funds and German pension insurance. Psychotherapists pension scheme, accessed on September 9, 2016 .
  8. ↑ An overview of the Bavarian lawyers and tax advisors