The Altersvorsorgedepot from a rating expert’s point of view
10 questions for Fabian Van Lancker (fb research) – an expert interview
How do you even compare a capital market product such as the Altersvorsorgedepot fairly? We asked. Fabian Van Lancker, managing director of fb research GmbH, knows the rating world from the inside and explains for us what matters in a comparison, why the industry is focusing above all on premium products and how independent ratings actually come about.
fb research is known for ratings and policy-wording comparisons of traditional insurance products. How can this methodology be transferred to the Altersvorsorgedepot, which is not a classic set of policy conditions but a capital market product?
The Altersvorsorgedepot will come in two forms: as a classic securities account with a fund approach and as an insurance product. Until now, pure securities accounts have been a focus at fb research neither in benefit comparisons nor in the sign-up process. That will remain the case in the course of the reform of private retirement provision. In our comparison of insurance products we do include the retirement securities account as a sample calculation, but without a sign-up option and without a qualitative comparison. Among the insurance products themselves, by contrast, there are clear differences in benefits and conditions. This applies in particular to the premium products that insurers are increasingly pushing. We map these differences in our tools, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Are you planning a rating of your own or a comparison standard specifically for providers of Altersvorsorgedepots? If so, which criteria would be decisive in your view?
First of all, the roles of fb research GmbH and Franke und Bornberg GmbH need to be kept apart. If there is a rating, which I currently assume there will be, Michael Franke will probably introduce it next year with Franke und Bornberg GmbH. I suspect it will focus on the premium products. We ourselves are starting on 1 January 2027 with comparison and sign-up for the new Riester products. There we offer a qualitative analysis, particularly of the differences we can already see today.
The statutory cost cap is 1.0 percent for standard securities accounts. Is this single metric enough to make providers meaningfully comparable, or do you think more differentiated quality criteria are needed?
The market is currently moving in a direction where standard securities accounts are a focus neither for the insurers nor for the large sales organizations and brokers. These are intended to be taken out via the insurers’ websites, among other channels. What is to be advised on and actively offered are the premium products. And those are exactly the ones we will integrate into the comparison. With premium products the cost cap is in some cases marginally higher, and there are differences in benefits and projections. That is why our comparison offers more than just this one metric. We will probably not include standard securities accounts, because demand for them is not reaching us at present.
Since 2022 fb research has been part of Swiss Life, a provider that also sells unit-linked retirement products of its own. How do you ensure the independence of your analyses when Altersvorsorgedepots are to be compared as well in future?
A good question, which I have partly answered already. We at fb research do not produce the ratings at all. That is done by Franke und Bornberg GmbH around Michael Franke and Katrin Bornberg. It remains 100 percent independent and free of outside capital participation. Even today it is responsible as author and analyst for all the ratings offered in our tools. That is precisely what guarantees independence, because there is no one who could intervene here.
You have emphasized in the past that human expertise remains indispensable when interpreting contract details. In your view, does that also apply to Altersvorsorgedepots, or are these products easier to compare automatically because they are standardized?
That cannot be answered across the board. With the standard products I do believe they can be compared very quickly, provided they all adhere to the GDV standard set of conditions. But once again, our focus is not there, it is on the premium products. Their variety is already very large today. That is why a qualitative comparison is needed alongside the quantitative one, and that is exactly what we map in our tools.
In your view, how does the Altersvorsorgedepot change the relationship between traditional insurance products such as unit-linked policies or classic annuity insurance and pure securities account solutions? Will the need for advice shift as a result?
From the conversations we have had so far with large sales and brokerage organizations, I do not believe that the need for advice will shift in terms of its logic. There are sales organizations and pools that are very investment-driven today. They want to advise on the Altersvorsorgedepot via the classic investment approach in future. And there are strongly insurance-driven organizations that will advise on the whole thing within an insurance wrapper. So the thematic focus of advice will not shift. I do believe, though, that we will see a certain hype next year, similar to the one when Riester was introduced. Sales organizations with a good advisory process, good tools and a fast, high-quality digital sign-up will gain a clear competitive advantage from that. That is all the more true because, as things stand today, I do not expect the state-run solution actually to arrive on 1 January 2027.
In future, brokers and agents will have to be able to explain both insurance products and Altersvorsorgedepots. What new requirements does that create for advisory software and comparison tools?
I believe the new requirements will be limited. The large brokerage and agency organizations we work with already advise on both today: securities accounts and funds as well as classic insurance products, unit-linked or not. So this hybrid competence is there. There are already various tool and software solutions that offer a comparison of securities account and retirement product. Whether a tool is really needed from which you compare funds and insurance policies is something I personally still doubt. Because at their core the two are also technically very different. A securities account is held at a bank, and the fund issuer is not the account provider. With an insurance policy, on the other hand, I tie myself to one insurer; the policy and the data come from there. So the sign-up process is completely different, as is the regulation. A needs-awareness tool that shows once what a securities account and what an insurance product can do is certainly useful. But in classic comparison and sign-up tools there are big incumbents in the market today, and we count ourselves among them. No new provider is going to join them there.
How do you assess the role of an additional public provider alongside the private account providers? Can such a state offering be meaningfully placed within existing comparison and rating systems at all?
With 25 years of history at fb research GmbH we are confident enough to say: technical competence, especially in digital comparison and sign-up, cannot be bought in with a lot of money within six months. With the digital expertise that Germany is currently displaying in government, that will certainly not get any easier. The advantage, of course, is that many people can be won over by a solution that is communicated and supported by the state. Many still believe in the central pension system, which would be extended somewhat by this. In that respect I do think the state product will generate a certain volume of business. At the moment, however, too much is still unclear – who will offer it, how it will work, how it will be taken out – for us to make any final statements about it.
The launch date for the Altersvorsorgedepot is 2027. How far along is fb research in developing the corresponding tools and data structures to make providers and products comparable in time?
We will probably be one of the first to offer a comparison and sign-up journey for the Altersvorsorgedepot insurance products on 1 January 2027. As early as the end of Q3 we will publish the interface structures so that our customers and partners can connect and implement our tools and this new line of business in good time. We are currently fully on schedule here. We are in talks with more than 15 insurance providers that are at different stages of their internal implementation. The analytical framework for the conditions analysis is in place, and we are coordinating very well with Franke und Bornberg GmbH. That will allow us to map the insurance products in full.
If you had one wish for policymakers: from the point of view of a comparison and rating company, what would need to be regulated more clearly so that transparency and comparability in the Altersvorsorgedepot actually work?
I believe that regulation as it stands today is one reason our industry exists at all: the brokers and agents, but also the tool providers. The products are so complex that a personal advisor is needed. Because nobody gets up in the morning and says: “Today I’ll buy occupational disability cover, today I’ll do something for my retirement provision.” Financial education is not a fixed part of the education system, but something you first have to grow into. My wish would be that regulation may well become simpler. But as long as there is competition and supply and demand, we will always be needed. We are used to presenting very complex matters simply for customers and advisors. The Altersvorsorgedepot is no new challenge in that respect and does not make our lives harder. We are convinced that here too we will deliver a good solution with our experience, expertise and quality.
Managing Director of fb research GmbH
Fabian Van Lancker is spokesman of the management board of fb research GmbH, based in Hannover, which he has headed since January 2023 together with Bastian Geisler and Stefan Stangl. The company develops digital analysis, comparison and advisory solutions for financial and insurance products and today employs more than 130 people. Since 2024 Van Lancker has also been a member of the management of vers.diagnose GmbH.
Van Lancker studied mathematics and theoretical physics and later completed a management degree at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. Before his current role he was responsible, together with his teams, for digital sales processes and data management at a leading Swiss insurer for several years.