2013 Conference

Financial Services

Financial Services

In Germany, the 2001 pension reform caused a shift from the monolithic pension system based on the statutory public pension scheme with a constant pension level safeguarding the standards of living in old age towards a multi-pillar system. This multi-pillar approach also shifted the responsibility for old-age income from the state towards individuals. In the wake of the reform, policy makers realized that the provision of transparent and comparable information on rights accrued within the first pillar deemed crucial as a basis for workers' decision about joining an additional occupational or private pension. For this reason, the German pension authority implemented an annual pension information statement in 2004. About 10 years after the introduction the German population is aware of the annual pension information statement. Nonetheless, the evaluation of different pieces of information varies. The forecast of the individual amount of regular old-age and invalidity pension are regarded most useful. Information hedged in a block of text is less often regarded useful or not read at all. In general, the information provided causes no changes in savings behaviour.