Doctors, pharmacists, architects: Anyone who practices a chambered freelance profession is also a member of a professional pension scheme - and will later receive a pension from this. What is to be considered?
Some professions regulate their old-age, disability and survivors' pensions on their own responsibility. Decisive for this: A fundamental political decision in 1957.
At that time, as part of the pension reform, the Bundestag refused members of the so-called liberal professions to be included in the new dynamic pension insurance. The liberal professions should take their old-age security into their own hands. The result: At the level of the federal states, there was a wave of founding pension schemes.
But what are professional pension institutions anyway - and is the pension higher here than with the statutory pension insurance? The most important questions and answers.
For whom are there professional pension schemes?
Professional pension schemes are compulsory pension institutions under public law. They ensure old-age, invalidity and surviving dependents' pensions for the chambered liberal professions.
Chambered liberal professions include doctors, dentists, pharmacists, architects, notaries and lawyers. Also: tax consultants or tax agents, veterinarians, auditors, chartered accountants as well as self-employed engineers and psychotherapists.
What are the differences to statutory pension insurance?
"The biggest difference lies in the financing," explains Stefan Strunk from the working group of professional pension institutions (ABV).
In contrast to the pay-as-you-go system of pension insurance, the pension schemes form capital. The benefits are therefore paid from the reserves of the pension schemes - and not from the payments of the currently employed, as with the statutory pension. In principle, this means that each generation provides for its own old age.
Another difference: only a few groups of self-employed people are compulsorily insured in the statutory pension insurance. The organization of the liberal professions in chambers, on the other hand, ensures that the respective profession is fully recorded. "This is how it enables their compulsory public insurance," says Strunk.
However, pension schemes must also provide for a solidarity settlement. "In this point, the pension schemes are comparable to the pension insurance," says Strunk.
Is the pension from the pension scheme higher than from the statutory pension insurance?
On average, the members of the professional pension schemes pay higher contributions than those with statutory pension insurance. Accordingly, the pensions are comparatively higher.
"In addition, the possibilities for voluntary higher insurance naturally have a positive effect on the amount of pension," says Stefan Strunk. In addition, the return on capital is higher than wage growth in the long term. This also leads to a comparatively higher pension.
Can you choose the utility?
Members of the liberal professions are legally obliged to be members of the responsible professional pension scheme. "There is no such thing as freedom of contract in the private insurance market," says Stefan Strunk. There is therefore no freedom of choice.
A change of pension scheme is still possible and not at all rare. This is what happens when you transfer your professional activity to the area of responsibility of another chamber - for example from the doctors' pension scheme in Bavaria to the doctors' pension scheme in NRW. "This is mandatory in the medical professions, in other professions memberships can also be continued voluntarily in pension funds that are no longer responsible locally," says Strunk.
What about professional years before chamber membership?
Suppose a woman first worked as a nurse and paid into the statutory pension insurance during this time. After studying medicine, she now works as a doctor - and is a compulsory member of a pension scheme.
For the time she worked as a nurse, the following applies: "If contributions have been paid into the statutory pension insurance for at least 60 months, there is an entitlement to a pension from the regular retirement age," says Dirk von der Heide from the German Pension Insurance Association.
If, on the other hand, no contributions have been paid for 60 months, the minimum insurance period for a pension has not been fulfilled. In this case, it is possible to fill up the missing contributions by paying voluntary contributions. This can be done at any time - until the regular retirement age is reached.
"There is also the possibility of having the contributions already paid reimbursed," says Dirk von der Heide. The portion of the contributions that you have paid yourself will be reimbursed. The employer's contribution remains in the community of insured persons. You can apply for reimbursement no earlier than two years after the last compulsory contribution.
However, Dirk von der Heide recommends seeking advice before making the decision to pay voluntary contributions - or to have the contributions reimbursed.
What else do you have to consider when changing?
In order to be exempted from the compulsory insurance of the statutory pension insurance, you have to work in an activity that essentially corresponds to the respective job profile organized in the chamber. "This means that not every activity performed by a doctor, pharmacist, architect or lawyer entitles you to exemption," says Stefan Strunk.
In the fringe areas of the job profile, the pension insurance must carry out individual examinations. "Only a specific individual activity is ever exempted," says Strunk. Anyone who changes this, even within a company or hospital, must always apply for a new exemption. Since the beginning of 2023, this has only been possible online.
The corresponding application portals are available on the website of the responsible pension fund.
