European Pension (PEPP)

I live in Germany and am interested in an equity-based pension account that can only be withdrawn upon reaching the statutory retirement age. With its PEPP (Pan-European Private Pension Product) program, the European Union has created an opportunity to implement, among other things, an equity-based solution for pensions. I think this European project is quite good; unfortunately, it has hardly been adopted by brokers so far, or the program isn’t available in Germany. This would be an opportunity for Trading212 to take a look at it and perhaps offer a corresponding product.

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Welcome to the Community, @Gewinner :waving_hand:

That’s worth exploring, so I’ll share your suggestion with the team and circle back if we have any updates.

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In the German legal system, freedom of contract and the associated defensive rights dominate. It is always possible to terminate a contract “for extraordinary reasons.” For this reason, in Germany, you cannot privately establish a stock-based retirement plan, which is locked until retirement age – because you can always terminate it beforehand. If you become unemployed, you then have to use up the money (because you can terminate the contract and use the money for your living expenses), so many young people don’t make any retirement savings at all. While there are German pension programs, they are very unattractive because they are not inheritable, or if you live abroad in old age, they can have disadvantages if there are no double taxation agreements. These programs are therefore very inflexible and expensive. The insurance industry benefits most from this. The only option for Germans is to establish a foundation and buy shares there. Because statutory law in Germany takes precedence over freedom of contract, this structure cannot be terminated once it has been established. Since PEPP is an EU regulation, this law applies when offering this program. The fundamental problem with all pension systems is that they are usually inflexible, and contributions paid into them are not inheritable. Equity-based systems, however, are inheritable and flexible. Therefore, it’s worth taking a closer look. It would be a unique selling point if t212 could offer a corresponding solution. There are many young people who want to build up a pension but don’t do so because the structures in Germany aren’t ideal. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is.