The state-subsidized forms of retirement provision do not have a good reputation. The returns that can be achieved with Riester, Rürup and company pension schemes are not so bad. What rightly strikes the citizens on the mind are construction errors in the funding from the years of the Schroeder government.

But they can be remedied. At the forefront of this are the costs, which are still too high. Especially in the long years of low interest rates, it has proven fatal that yields dwindled, but the distributors did not have to bear their share of the changed situation. Currently, the acquisition costs in life insurance are even rising again.

The other problem is a complex administration, for which it even needs its own allowance office. Here, associations have already made sensible reform proposals in the past government period. And the fact that the legislator insisted on guarantees did not do savers any good either.

The focus group on old-age provision, which is currently meeting, must finally bring about a breakthrough. But the positions of those involved are far apart.