Altersvorsorgedepot: Germany's 2027 ETF Pension

€1,140: that is the state top-up a saver with two children receives on €1,800 paid into an Altersvorsorgedepot in a single year, once Germany’s new state-subsidised pension product goes live on 1 January 2027. That single worked example captures the whole reform in miniature — Riester’s flat cent-Zulage is gone, replaced by a percentage-based match that rewards higher contributions and families, and the money can finally sit in ETFs instead of a guarantee-heavy insurance wrapper.

This guide walks through what the Altersvorsorgedepot actually is, who is now eligible, exactly how the new subsidy is calculated (with a full worked table), what happens to existing Riester contracts, and where the removed capital guarantee cuts against savers who assumed “state-subsidised” automatically meant “risk-free.”

TL;DR — the 2027 Altersvorsorgedepot reform

The Altersvorsorgedepot replaces Riester as Germany’s subsidised private pension from 1 January 2027, letting savers hold stocks, funds, and ETFs instead of guarantee-heavy insurance products.
The capital guarantee is now optional, not mandatory — a real break from Riester’s 100%-guarantee rule, and the trade-off behind the higher expected long-run returns.
Subsidies are now percentage-based: 50% of contributions up to €360/year, then 25% of contributions from €360.01 up to €1,800/year, for a maximum Grundzulage of €540/year, plus €300 per child (Kinderzulage).
Existing Riester contracts keep running under Bestandsschutz — nobody is forced to cancel or convert, but no new Riester contracts can be opened after the switchover.
Self-employed people and freelancers are now eligible, a group that was largely locked out of Riester’s subsidy structure before.

€1,140 maximum annual state top-up for a saver with 2 children paying in €1,800/year

What is the Altersvorsorgedepot?

The Altersvorsorgedepot is a new state-subsidised depot for private retirement saving, built to hold stocks, funds, and ETFs rather than the insurance-style products Riester contracts were mostly wrapped in. It becomes the only subsidised private pension product Germany sells starting 1 January 2027, taking over from Riester (Riester-Rente), which has been criticised for two decades over high costs, low equity exposure, and a mandatory 100% capital guarantee that forced providers into low-yield, guarantee-heavy portfolios.

The legislative path was fast by German standards: the federal cabinet approved the reform on 17 December 2025, the Bundestag passed it on 27 March 2026, the Bundesrat approved it on 8 May 2026, and it entered into force at the end of May 2026 (Bundestag documentation; Bundesregierung announcement; Deutsche Rentenversicherung). Providers then have until the start of 2027 to bring actual Altersvorsorgedepot products to market, which is why nobody can open one before 1 January 2027 even though the law itself is already in force.

Anyone weighing an Altersvorsorgedepot against Germany’s statutory pension (gesetzliche Rentenversicherung) should first understand how the two interact — see what happens to your Rente as an expat for how the state pension itself works before layering a subsidised private product on top.

Who is eligible — and what changes from Riester

Riester’s subsidy structure was built around employees paying into the statutory pension system, which meant self-employed people, freelancers, and business owners were largely shut out unless they qualified through a spouse. The Altersvorsorgedepot drops that restriction: employees, the self-employed, freelancers, and business owners are all eligible for the state subsidy, which is one of the biggest practical changes in the reform.

Two other design choices carry over from Riester and stay firm: contributions are still capped for subsidy purposes, and payout still has to happen as either a lifelong annuity or a fixed-term drawdown — the Altersvorsorgedepot is not a fully flexible brokerage account you can empty in one withdrawal at 67. Taxation follows the same nachgelagerte Besteuerung principle Riester used: contributions get favourable tax treatment while the money is invested, and the eventual payout is taxed in retirement, when many savers sit in a lower tax bracket than during their working years.

The subsidy math, worked in full

This is the part most English-language coverage skips: exactly how much the state adds on top of what you contribute. The new system replaces Riester’s flat cent-based Zulage with a two-tier percentage match:

50% of contributions up to €360/year — worth up to €180.
25% of contributions from €360.01 up to €1,800/year — worth up to €360 more.
That combination caps the Grundzulage (basic allowance) at €540/year — roughly three times Riester’s old €175 maximum.
Kinderzulage: €300 per child per year, on top of the Grundzulage, as long as at least €25/month is being contributed.
Berufseinsteigerbonus: a one-off €200 for savers under 25 in the year they open the contract.

The subsidy ceiling applies to contributions up to €1,800/year — you can pay in more (up to €6,840/year total), but nothing above €1,800 earns extra subsidy. Here is what that produces across four realistic contribution levels:

Scenario	Annual contribution	50% tier (up to €360)	25% tier (€360.01–€1,800)	Grundzulage total	Kinderzulage	Total state top-up	Your net cost	Effective subsidy rate
Minimum saver, no children	€360	€180	€0	€180	€0	€180	€180	50%
Parent, 1 child, modest contribution	€900	€180	€135 (25% × €540)	€315	€300	€615	€285	68.3%
Max contributor, no children	€1,800	€180	€360 (25% × €1,440)	€540	€0	€540	€1,260	30%
Max contributor, 2 children	€1,800	€180	€360 (25% × €1,440)	€540	€600 (2 × €300)	€1,140	€660	63.3%

Read the last row as the headline case: a parent of two who pays in the full €1,800/year gets €1,140 of it back as state subsidy, so the real out-of-pocket cost of that year’s saving is €660 — an effective subsidy rate above 63%. Families with more children or smaller contributions relative to €360 see the effective rate climb even higher, because the 50% tier and the flat Kinderzulage do proportionally more work on a smaller base.

Tip

Contributing at least €360/year captures the full 50% match before the rate steps down to 25% — that first €360 is the highest-leverage euro in the whole system.

The trade-off: no more mandatory capital guarantee

Riester required providers to guarantee that a saver would get back at least 100% of their nominal contributions at payout, a rule that pushed nearly every Riester product into bonds, money-market instruments, and low-equity mixes to avoid ever showing a loss on the guaranteed portion. The Altersvorsorgedepot removes that requirement — the capital guarantee is now optional, not mandatory — which is precisely what allows the product to hold ETFs and equities at meaningful weight and target the kind of long-run returns a beginner ETF-Sparplan can produce over decades.

Standard-product providers face a cost cap of 1.0%/year, which limits how much a fund-of-funds or robo-style default product can charge — a meaningful ceiling compared with the layered fees that made many Riester contracts expensive to hold for 20–30 years.

Warning

Removing the capital guarantee is a real trade-off, not a pure upgrade. A Riester saver with the 100% guarantee could not lose nominal capital; an Altersvorsorgedepot saver in an equity-heavy, non-guaranteed product can see the account value fall in a bad year, particularly close to the planned payout date. The subsidy boosts your contribution, but it does not protect the invested balance from market risk once it is inside the depot. Anyone starting a plan in their 50s or later should weigh the guarantee-optional structure carefully against their actual time horizon — the same horizon logic that applies to saving for retirement in your 20s and 30s works in reverse as retirement gets closer.

What happens to existing Riester contracts

Nothing forces existing Riester holders to act. Contracts already running keep going under Bestandsschutz (grandfathering) — there is no automatic cancellation and no automatic conversion into an Altersvorsorgedepot. The only hard cutoff is on the supply side: from 1 January 2027, providers can no longer sell new Riester contracts. Anyone who already has one keeps their existing terms, subsidy rules, and guarantee, and can simply choose whether to keep contributing, pause, or eventually compare their Riester contract against an Altersvorsorgedepot on its own merits once products are actually available.

Comparing your own retirement-saving options for 2027?

Compare pension options via Tarifcheck →

Partner link — we may earn a commission; the price for you never changes.

Altersvorsorgedepot vs Riester: what actually changed

Feature	Riester (old)	Altersvorsorgedepot (from 2027)
Eligible investments	Mostly insurance-wrapped, guarantee-heavy	Stocks, funds, ETFs
Capital guarantee	Mandatory, 100% of contributions	Optional
Max basic allowance (Grundzulage)	€175/year	€540/year
Subsidy structure	Flat cent-Zulage	50% up to €360, then 25% up to €1,800
Child allowance (Kinderzulage)	Lower, fixed amount	€300/child/year
Self-employed eligibility	Largely excluded	Included
Standard-product cost cap	Not standardised	1.0%/year
New contracts after 2027	Not available	Available

The pattern across every row is the same: broader eligibility, a bigger and more progressive subsidy, and market-linked upside in exchange for giving up the guaranteed floor. Whether that trade suits a given saver depends heavily on time horizon, existing pension coverage, and risk tolerance — factors that also shape how a Steuerklasse affects net income and, indirectly, how much room there is to contribute at all.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Altersvorsorgedepot and how is it different from Riester?

It is Germany’s new state-subsidised private pension product, replacing Riester from 1 January 2027. The core difference is investment freedom: an Altersvorsorgedepot can hold stocks, funds, and ETFs with an optional capital guarantee, while Riester required a mandatory 100% guarantee that pushed products toward low-yield, guarantee-heavy portfolios.

Who is eligible for the Altersvorsorgedepot?

Employees, the self-employed, freelancers, and business owners are all eligible. This is a significant expansion — self-employed people were largely excluded from Riester’s subsidy structure before.

How is the state subsidy calculated?

The state matches 50% of contributions up to €360/year (worth up to €180) and 25% of contributions from €360.01 up to €1,800/year (worth up to €360 more), for a maximum Grundzulage of €540/year. Parents also receive €300 per child per year (Kinderzulage), and savers under 25 get a one-off €200 Berufseinsteigerbonus when opening the contract.

What happens to my existing Riester contract after 2027?

Nothing changes automatically. Existing Riester contracts keep running under Bestandsschutz — there is no forced cancellation or conversion. The only change is that providers cannot sell new Riester contracts from 1 January 2027 onward.

Is the Altersvorsorgedepot capital guaranteed?

Not by default. Riester required a 100% capital guarantee; the Altersvorsorgedepot makes the guarantee optional, which is what allows providers to offer genuinely equity- and ETF-heavy standard products. Choosing a non-guaranteed product means accepting market risk on the invested balance in exchange for higher expected long-run returns.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. The Altersvorsorgedepot reform figures above reflect the legislative status as of the Bundesrat’s approval on 8 May 2026 and the law’s entry into force at the end of May 2026; actual products, provider fees, and implementation details from 1 January 2027 may vary. Compare current private pension and ETF-savings options via a licensed intermediary such as Tarifcheck before making a decision. Alle Angaben ohne Gewähr.