Company pension scheme (bAV)
According to the definition in Section 1 (1) of the German Company Pension Act (BetrAVG), a company pension scheme exists if an employee is promised retirement, invalidity or surviving dependants’ benefits by the employer as a result of their employment relationship. There are five different ways of implementing occupational pension schemes, which differ in terms of financing, capital investment, tax and social security treatment, benefits, state supervision and insolvency protection:
- As part of the direct commitment or pension commitment, the employer undertakes to provide the benefits itself in the event of a pension claim. The employer and pension provider are therefore identical. The employer must recognise a pension provision in the balance sheet for the obligations arising from the direct commitment.
- The provident fund is a legally independent pension organisation, usually in the legal form of a registered association. It is financed by contributions from sponsoring companies and the investment income from its assets.
- In the case of direct insurance, the employer takes out insurance for which the employees or their surviving dependants are fully or partially entitled to draw benefits. This can be pension insurance, risk insurance or unit-linked life insurance.
- A pension fund is a pension institution with legal capacity in the legal form of a mutual insurance association (VVaG) or a public limited company (AG). It can be sponsored by one or more companies or by associations and grants its members a legal entitlement to company pension benefits.
- Like the Pensionskasse, the Pensionsfonds (cf. § 112 VAG) is a pension scheme with legal capacity. A significant difference to the Pensionskasse is that there are only minor investment restrictions and the contributions can be invested freely on the capital market.
Professional pension schemes
Professional pension schemes are pension schemes based on statutory compulsory membership for liberal professions that are eligible to join a chamber, such as doctors, pharmacists, architects, notaries, lawyers or tax consultants. They are institutions under public law with legal capacity and self-administration established on the basis of state law and offer their members retirement, disability and survivors’ pensions.
From investment strategy to investment controlling
We offer the full range of investment advisory services for pension schemes and pension organisations:
- Investment Strategy: Advising pension funds and occupational pension schemes on the optimal alignment of the investment strategy with the obligation structure (asset liability management / ALM)
- Asset Manager Selection: Supporting investors in the selection of managers. PPCmetrics has in-depth expertise in the various investment categories of equities, bonds (government and corporate bonds), real estate and alternative investments (e.g. hedge funds, private equity, insurance-linked securities, commodities and infrastructure).
- Investment Controlling: Comprises independent monitoring and control at the three levels of strategy controlling, controlling of investment tactics and controlling of investment mandates and asset managers.
- Actuarial Consulting: PPCmetrics advises pension schemes, pension funds and other organisations on actuarial issues.
- Investment Consulting: PPCmetrics analyses financial economic issues such as asset allocation, interest rate risk management, dealing with currency risks, currency hedging, asset management costs, recommendations on benchmarks (comparative indices), risk management, analysis of risk premiums, etc.
- Portfoliocheck: includes the risk analysis of products used, the assessment of asset management costs and recommendations on investment style and mandate structure.
- Investment organization: includes the analysis of pension governance, the organisational structure, the investment process and the preparation of the corresponding specifications in accordance with legal requirements.
- Legal Consulting: PPCmetrics advises institutional investors on the increasingly complex legal requirements and legal issues.
