How the provider monitor is compiled

survey population

We list 79 providers. All figures on this page refer to these providers. Inclusion criterion: Every provider operating in Germany at which, as things stand today, a retail customer will be able to get an Altersvorsorgedepot from 2027 — directly or through a distribution channel: banks, brokers, insurers, specialist banks, robo-advisers, apps and fintechs.

What matters is whose name ends up on your contract. We do not list fund companies or technical service providers, even where their names come up in connection with the Altersvorsorgedepot. They supply funds or technology; you never sign a contract with them. Whoever stands here is a provider with which you will actually be able to sign from 2027.

Every provider page therefore carries the line “Your contracting party”. Below it a second line may appear, “Securities account held by”. It appears only where we know which bank holds the securities account, and it always says how we know. Either the provider named the bank itself, or the entry comes from our own research. Where the line is missing, we have no evidence. Nothing is guessed at this point.

Merely informing people about the reform is not enough to make the list. Several providers run extensive pages on the Altersvorsorgedepot without saying a word about an offer of their own. We watch them and do not count them. As soon as such a provider writes one sentence of its own about it, it appears here.

Completeness is explicitly not our aim. Germany has more than eighty life insurers and several hundred banks with retail business, and every one of them could launch an Altersvorsorgedepot. Anyone missing here has either not spoken publicly or has not yet crossed our path.

Our aim is a different one. Every entry on this page is documented, dated and verifiable. We write nothing we cannot show, and when something changes, the change goes in the log instead of quietly into the text.

The list is therefore growing continuously. For one thing, further providers are speaking up about the Altersvorsorgedepot; for another, in every review round we look specifically for providers we do not yet list. When one is added, it goes in the change log. That is not a formality, because every percentage shifts with the denominator. Anyone quoting a percentage from this page should quote the survey date with it

Sources

The basis is exclusively publicly accessible sources from the provider itself. Its website, its press releases, its FAQ, its price lists, its annual report. Every entry carries a source type and a date and can therefore be checked.

What a trade publication, a comparison site or an advice portal writes about a provider is good for finding things and never counts as evidence. It did not always read that way here. Until the summer we listed trade media alongside the providers' own sources, because back then two providers were on this list on the strength of press reports alone and we wanted that in the open. A report about a provider can carry the status “expected” at most; it never carries a figure. No provider currently stands at that level.

There is one exception. At Baader Bank (Veröffentlichung eines Dritten (HANSAINVEST), 09.07.2026) the evidence comes from a third party; the provider itself has said nothing. That is stated in the type of evidence on the card. Otherwise every statement rests on a source of the provider's own.

Publicly we show the source type and the evidence date; internally we keep the full URL and a verbatim quote. There are two reasons. The page stays readable, and the entry stays documented even if a source disappears at the provider.

Direct enquiries to the providers will follow in a second step. Until then we list no statement we cannot show.

The four status levels

No status without evidence, except “not yet confirmed”. Where we can document nothing, the provider stands at “not yet confirmed” and the line does not disappear. A statement from a support chat is not a confirmation.

Progress and terms

Beside the status, each provider shows how far along the offer is. From the bottom up: information page on the reform, announcement without a product page, own product page, pre-registration with a waiting list or newsletter, and published terms. This says nothing about the quality of an offer, only about the state of preparation.

A published term means a figure or an explicit zero price from the provider's own source. An announcement that a price will follow does not count. Nor is the statutory cap of 1.0% in effective costs a provider statement. It applies only to the standard-depot contract under section 1(1c) and not to the ordinary Altersvorsorgedepot. Many providers quote it because it is in the law, and we never adopt it as a price.

From this follows the cost line at each provider. Three cases. If the provider states its own costs, we show the figure with source and date. If it talks about costs without naming a figure, that is exactly what it says and no more. And if nothing on costs can be found at the provider, the line stays empty and says so, rather than filling the gap with a figure from somewhere.

A figure we have not read at the provider itself does not go in. Nor does one with a footnote pointing to where it came from. Anyone quoting a price the provider never published can neither date it nor link to it, which means nobody can check it. It is not verifiable. At many providers the figure is therefore missing here even though one can be found elsewhere. That is the rule working as intended.

Upkeep and currency

We watch the market every working day and check each report against the provider's own source. On top of that come complete passes over every provider listed, at least weekly and always when a report moves the market. Each quarter we review the survey population.

That is why the pages carry two dates. The survey date is the last complete pass over all providers. The review date sits on each individual provider and says when we last read its page. If a provider was reviewed in between, its review date is newer than the survey date, and the provider page then shows both.

Where a review date is more than 30 days old, a visible note appears beside the entry. Better transparently out of date than quietly out of date.

Change log

Every change of status is recorded with the date, the old and the new value, and a reason. We overwrite nothing. The log is not decoration but the reason this survey works as a source: it shows that someone keeps looking.

To the current change log

Independence

Ranking is never based on commission. Within a provider group, those that have published their own terms with source and date come first. Alphabetical order follows. The monitor table contains no referral links. Individual provider pages carry marked links from which we may receive a commission if you take out a contract; this has no bearing on status or assessment.