Time to tidy up your Riester.

Riester contract

€175 basic allowance a year, plus €185 per child – €300 for a child born after 31 December 2007. You only get the full allowance if you pay the Mindesteigenbeitrag (the required own contribution); pay in less and it is cut pro rata. Anyone not yet 25 at the start of the contribution year gets a one-off €200 here too.

Altersvorsorgedepot

Up to €540 basic allowance a year: 50 cents per euro on the first €360, then 25 cents per euro up to €1,800 – so the full €540 only at an own contribution of €1,800. Plus up to €300 per child, likewise contribution-dependent. Allowances start at an own contribution of €120 a year; anyone not yet 25 at the start of the contribution year gets a one-off €200 on top. Unlike the fixed Riester basic allowance, the allowance here hangs entirely on your contribution: pay in little and you get less than today’s €175.

Riester contract

Sonderausgabenabzug (special-expenses deduction) of up to €2,100 a year – that ceiling covers contributions and allowance together, so your own contribution counts only up to €2,100 minus your allowances. The tax office checks without an application whether the deduction beats the allowance for you.

Altersvorsorgedepot

Sonderausgabenabzug of up to €1,800 of your own contributions a year, plus the allowance due on them – with the full basic allowance that is up to €2,340, and more with child allowances. The €1,800 is the cap on your own contribution, not on the deductible amount.

Riester contract

At the start of the payout phase at least the contributions paid in have to be available. The provider has to cover that promise across the whole term, which limits the room for more volatile assets.

Altersvorsorgedepot

A contribution guarantee is not possible here at all: for the Altersvorsorgedepot the law rules out agreeing a minimum capital at the end of the savings phase or a minimum performance during it – more return potential, but price swings you have to be able to sit through.

Riester contract

Because the contribution guarantee has to be covered across the whole term, the equity share is limited – by how much depends on the product and the provider. Your own quota is in your Produktinformationsblatt (key information document).

Altersvorsorgedepot

There is no such requirement here: the equity share follows your investment strategy. The standard depot contract works with two funds, and for the riskier one the law prescribes a glide path that reduces it towards the start of payouts – at most 50% five years before, at most 30% two years before and at the start. Those are the statutory default, not a rigid limit: you can ask for different percentages.

Riester contract

What your contract costs depends on the product type – Riester exists as an insurance policy, as a bank savings plan and as a fund savings plan. With a unit-linked Riester annuity you pay twice: the costs of the policy and the costs of the funds inside it. The figure that sums both up is the Effektivkosten (effective costs) in your key information document.

Altersvorsorgedepot

For the standard depot contract the legislator caps effective costs at 1.0%. Effective costs means: by how much the costs reduce your return up to the start of payouts. The cap does not apply to other Altersvorsorgedepot contracts.

Riester contract

Which funds sit in your contract is as a rule set by the provider. You will find them in your key information document and in the annual statement.

Altersvorsorgedepot

What may be bought is set by statute – among other things UCITS and open-ended retail AIFs up to risk class 5, plus certain government bonds. Here too the provider selects the investments unless you exercise a contractual option. With ETFs you can see at any time what is in the portfolio.

Riester contract

If your contract provides for it, up to 30% of the capital can be paid out in one go at the start of the payout phase – that payment is taxed in full as sonstige Einkünfte (other income) at your personal rate. The rest has to run for life – as a lifelong annuity, or as a payout plan followed by a Teilkapitalverrentung (partial annuitisation) from age 85 at the latest. Only that annuitisation from 85 requires an insurer; with a bank or fund savings plan your provider pays the instalments before it itself.

Altersvorsorgedepot

Payouts begin between 65 and 70. Here the payout plan may end: no earlier than age 85, and any residual capital is paid out then – a lifelong annuity is not required. Up to 30% can be taken in one go at the start if your contract provides for it; that payment too is taxed in full as sonstige Einkünfte at your personal rate. The rest stays invested.

Riester contract

In essence employees covered by compulsory state pension insurance, plus civil servants.

Altersvorsorgedepot

From 2027 also the self-employed and freelancers under 67 who have filed a tax return for the contribution year, and employed compulsory members of a professional pension scheme who have consented to the data transfer. The FAQ on the Altersvorsorgedepot page spells out who exactly.