From 2027 the state invests in your ETF savings plans.

The basic allowance comes in two tiers: on the first €360 a year the state adds 50%, on the portion above that up to €1,800 it adds 25%. Together that is at most €540 of basic allowance per year.

For every child you receive Kindergeld for, up to €300 of child allowance is added. If you are still under 25 at the start of the contribution year, you also get a one-off €200 new-earner bonus.

You only get the allowances if you pay in at least €120 a year yourself – that is the condition for the allowance, not a contractual minimum. You may pay in at most €6,840 a year. Once the maximum is reached, no further contributions are possible until the next calendar year.

For tax purposes, your contributions of up to €1,800 a year plus the allowance attributable to them count as special expenses – up to €2,340 with the full basic allowance. The tax office automatically checks whether the allowance or the tax deduction is better for you; you get whichever is worth more. For that you have to declare your contributions in your tax return (Anlage AV).

Adjusting your contribution

You can raise, lower or pause your monthly contribution in the app at any time – free of charge and without giving a reason. Only the allowance depends on it: €120 has to add up over the year, otherwise it is forfeited for that year.

One-off payments

Bonus, inheritance, tax refund: one-off payments can go in at any time, as long as you stay under €6,840 for the year. If you want to lock in the allowance in a single move, pay in €1,800 at once.

Pausing

A pause costs you the subsidy for the paused years – both the allowance and the tax deduction. The money already invested stays in the market, and the allowances you have received remain yours.

Locked in until retirement

You can cancel at any time – but before the payout start that counts as harmful use: you repay the allowances and the tax benefits, and you pay tax on the gains at your personal rate. After only a few years that can leave the account worse off than an ordinary ETF account with no subsidy at all.

There is one exception: for building or buying a home you live in yourself, you may withdraw €3,000 or more early (§ 92a EStG) without losing the subsidy – provided your contract terms allow it. It is not tax-free: the amount is recorded in a Wohnförderkonto (housing subsidy account) and taxed in retirement.

So, honestly: only put money in here that you won’t need before retirement. For everything else there is the investment account – available at any time, no notice period.

Glide path to retirement

For the statutory Standard-Depotvertrag the law prescribes a glide path: five years before payouts begin, at most 50% may sit in the higher-volatility risk classes 3 to 5; two years before, and at the start, at most 30%. Those are default percentages – whoever holds such a contract can ask for different ones. Which contract type the Altersvorsorgedepot at quirion will be is settled with the certification, and that cannot happen before 1 January 2027.

In the Pro variant we plan the glide path with you from the outset: you decide whether and when we invest more defensively for you.

Equity share

You choose between eleven strategies – from 0 to 100% equities. More equities means more return potential and bigger swings: over some twelve-month periods the 100% strategy is well up, over others it is down.

The subsidy stays

Whether you move towards safety or towards growth: allowances and tax benefits are attached to the contract, not to the strategy. They stay invested in your Altersvorsorgedepot.

Payout start

Payouts begin between the ages of 65 and 70 – you set the date. Until then your balance stays invested and can keep growing in the capital market.

If you draw your state pension earlier, an earlier start is possible too.

Your three options

Up to 30% of the account value can be withdrawn straight away at the start. That costs you no subsidy, but the payout is taxed just like the monthly pension.

The rest runs as a monthly payout – either as a payout plan running to at least age 85, which pays out any residual capital at the end, or as a lifelong annuity.

It can stay invested during the payout phase, too.

The size of the monthly payout is recalculated every one to three years – so gains made in the meantime end up in your instalment rather than on a frozen account.

A full lump-sum payout is not provided for: the Altersvorsorgedepot is built as a supplement to your pension, not as a savings book.

We do the maths for you, we pick your ETFs according to capital-market research, and we collect the state subsidy into your account. We manage the risks – and later the payout.

And if you want to know why we do something a certain way: ask our assistant, right below these cards.