According to recent studies, most employees still don’t understand how the German pension system works - even though the demographic shift, tax advantages, and legal requirements make corporate pensions more important than ever.

HR gets more questions than it can legally answer, brokers are overloaded, and employees often miss out on benefits simply because the system is too complex.

That brings up a question many organizations are now asking:

How can we make bAV easy for every employee?

What is a Corporate Pension (bAV)?

The corporate pension - “betriebliche Altersvorsorge” - is the second pillar of retirement in Germany.

It allows employees to save part of their salary tax-advantaged while employers can offer subsidies, matching, or company-specific rules.

But despite its advantages, employees still struggle with:

• Understanding the three pillars of retirement

• Knowing what they actually pay from net salary

• Figuring out how employer subsidies work

• Navigating tax classes, social security, and contribution limits

This complexity is exactly why uptake stays lower than it should be, even though almost every employer offers a bAV today.

Why do employees stuggle so much?

Most pension communication today relies on PDFs, intranet pages, or short broker meetings that are hard to scale.

Employees rarely have the time or headspace to decode jargon and numbers, and HR teams cannot provide regulated advice.

At the same time, brokers lose capacity explaining the same basics over and over.

This creates an information gap - employees are expected to decide, but don’t feel informed enough to take action.

Why this matters in 2025

Germany’s demographic shift is accelerating. Employees want clarity. Employers want higher participation. Brokers need a scalable advisory workflow.

The organizations that modernize their bAV experience now will be the ones who:

• attract talent

• increase pension uptake

• reduce HR workload

• stay compliant

• support employees in the long run

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Better pension understanding isn’t a “nice to have” - it’s becoming a core part of modern employee benefits.