Is the Altersvorsorgedepot safe?
Yes, but not without risk: the Altersvorsorgedepot (Germany’s new state-subsidized retirement investment account) is regulated by law, protects your capital if a provider becomes insolvent, and caps costs by statute – in the default case, however, there is no capital guarantee, so your money is exposed to real market fluctuations. “Safe” here does not mean “without risk,” but “regulated and offering choices” – unlike the Riester pension, which by default promised that you would get back at least the amount you had paid in.
The key points at a glance
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By default the Altersvorsorgedepot does without a capital guarantee, so that your money can work harder in the capital markets – the chance of a higher return than under the old Riester guarantee comes with real, short-term swings in value.
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Only broadly diversified, vetted ETFs and funds are permitted – speculative individual securities and cryptocurrencies are excluded.
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If your provider becomes insolvent, the assets in your securities account are legally protected as segregated fund assets.
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A statutory cost cap of 1.0 percent reduction in yield on the standard securities account provides additional protection against costly erosion of your returns.
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Before retirement begins, the standard securities account automatically shifts into lower-risk investments, and anyone wanting extra security can choose a guarantee product.
Why the Altersvorsorgedepot is safe
The fact that the Altersvorsorgedepot does not yet exist in practice makes the question of safety an understandable one – but the legal guardrails are already set before the first account is opened. An Altersvorsorgedepot may hold only broadly diversified ETFs and funds as well as certain bonds – speculative individual stocks, structured certificates, and cryptocurrencies are excluded by law. Your capital is also protected if the provider becomes insolvent: the funds in your securities account legally count as segregated fund assets, strictly separated from the assets of your bank or broker. If the provider goes insolvent, your capital does not form part of the bankruptcy estate; it remains your property and transfers unchanged to another provider. This protection covers the legal allocation only, not the market value – the price risk continues regardless. Only the cash portion not yet invested, held in your settlement account, sits on the balance sheet of the bank running the account and therefore falls not under the protection for segregated fund assets but under the statutory deposit guarantee scheme – covered, as with any bank account, up to €100,000 per investor and institution.
In addition, a statutory cost cap limits the erosion of returns: according to the Federal Ministry of Finance FAQ on the reform of private retirement provision the average annual reduction in return caused by costs may not exceed 1.0 percent for default standard product contracts – with a 5 percent return before costs, roughly 4 percent net would remain. To make sure this cap is actually observed, every contract – including the standard securities account – must be certified by the Federal Central Tax Office under the Retirement Provision Contracts Certification Act: the review checks whether the contract meets the statutory requirements. This certification does not, however, replace ongoing supervision of each provider’s financial soundness, as the Federal Ministry of Finance makes explicit in its FAQ. Anyone wanting the combination of vetted funds and capped costs without making their own selection will find it ready-made in the standard securities account by default. Before retirement begins, a legally mandated lifecycle model also shifts your capital step by step into lower-risk investments, and a drawdown plan in the decumulation phase spreads the later withdrawals over several years. And if security matters more to you than the chance of a return: the contribution guarantee is dropped in the standard securities account, but remains available with guarantee products offering partial or full capital preservation.
In short: Vetted funds, legally secured protection against insolvency, and a statutory cost cap mean your capital is structurally well looked after – regardless of how prices develop.
Where the risks lie
Without a capital guarantee your money can work harder in the capital markets, but it will not necessarily exceed the amount paid in every year: in the short term the value of your securities account can fluctuate and at times fall below the sum you have contributed. Over very long periods, price swings in equity markets have historically evened out as a rule – but that evening-out only applies if you do not sell during a weak phase, because a loss becomes final only when you actually realize it. After the 2008/2009 financial crisis, for example, the DAX fell by around 50 percent but regained its pre-crisis level by 2013 – anyone who sold at the low made the loss permanent; anyone who stayed invested did not. There is no guarantee of such a recovery in any case – and this very trade-off between security and return is one of the central advantages and disadvantages of the Altersvorsorgedepot.
A second risk concerns timing: if a market slump hits precisely in the final years before retirement, there is less time to make it up than after a comparable slump in the middle of the accumulation phase. The automatic lifecycle model softens this so-called sequence-of-returns risk, but does not remove it entirely.
A third risk is legal in nature: the key parameters – subsidy rates, cost cap, payout rules – are set out in the Retirement Provision Reform Act and are therefore already fixed in law. Individual implementation details, such as the specific design of the public standard securities account by statutory regulation, have not yet been conclusively settled, so details could still shift slightly before the 2027 launch.
In short: The real risk is market risk without a capital guarantee – historically this has evened out over long periods, and for the critical phase shortly before retirement the automatic lifecycle model provides additional protection.
Conclusion
The question “is the Altersvorsorgedepot safe?” can be answered with yes – but only if you say what exactly that means. Against provider insolvency and excessive costs, the law protects you concretely. Against market fluctuations, nobody protects you in the default case; what does is a long investment horizon, an automatic lifecycle model, and the option of deliberately choosing a guarantee product. Giving up the old Riester guarantee is at the same time the chance of a higher return – how much security is worth to you is ultimately your decision.
Join the waiting list now, with no obligation, and be the first to know as soon as providers can be compared for the 2027 launch of the Altersvorsorgedepot.
This article is for information purposes and does not constitute investment advice.
Is my money in the Altersvorsorgedepot gone if prices fall?
Not automatically: price losses temporarily reduce the value of your securities account, but with a long investment horizon they are part of a market-based investment and have historically been made up again as a rule. Money is definitively lost only if you actually have to sell or withdraw during a period of losses.
Is there a guarantee option in the Altersvorsorgedepot at all?
Yes. Alongside the return-oriented standard securities account without a guarantee, you can opt for a guarantee product with partial or full capital preservation if security matters more to you than maximum return potential.
What happens to my Altersvorsorgedepot if the market crashes shortly before I retire?
In the standard securities account, a legally mandated lifecycle model automatically shifts your assets into lower-risk investments in the final years before retirement, and a drawdown plan then spreads withdrawals over several years – a single unfavorable moment therefore carries less weight.
What happens to my Altersvorsorgedepot if the provider becomes insolvent?
Your securities account assets legally count as segregated fund assets and are therefore separate from the provider's insolvency estate. They remain your property and can be transferred unchanged to another provider.
Lawyer & financial market expert · AVD Anbieter Vergleich
Rolf Henning Hackel is a qualified lawyer who has spent more than 22 years as a board member and managing director at various software providers to the financial industry, and as a founder himself. As a thorough market expert he knows not only the different providers but also the financial industry’s products, their strengths and weaknesses, and the regulatory framework around them. At AVD Anbieter Vergleich he writes about the new Altersvorsorgedepot and explains subsidies, providers and return potential in plain language — independently and free of advertising.
