Your pension at Fresenius
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Your starting date at Fresenius
Were you 55 years of age or older when you joined us?
Your pension at Fresenius
The results are based on the information you provide and offer a simplified overview of Fresenius occupational pension schemes. Only the general works agreements valid for you and corresponding individual contractual regulations are legally binding.
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More than a pension
With Fresenius Pensions, you can build a safety cushion for your retirement. But the scheme also includes basic options to protect your family in the event of your death. Depending on your life circumstances, it may be sensible to increase this cover and to insure yourself against certain risks, for instance incapacity. There are therefore various options to expand Fresenius Pensions services - both for the Fresenius Basic Plan and for direct insurance.
If you do not yet have private incapacity insurance, then the options for incapacity cover could represent a wise choice. If your family would be insufficiently covered in the event of your death, the option of a survivors’ pension is worth considering. Are you well-insured for such risks? In this case, it probably makes sense to focus entirely on payments for your retirement.
With Fresenius Pensions, you can create the right package for you.
When doing this, please be aware that if you select your own options, a part of your contributions goes towards the increased risk cover instead of your pension. Therefore, these options reduce your pension payments. Increase your own contributions to your direct insurance to compensate for selecting one or more of the options. You can compensate for this by making larger contributions to your direct insurance scheme.
Survivors’ pension
What is automatically available?
Your Fresenius Pensions is supplementary to state survivor cover. In case of death after entering retirement, the Fresenius Basic Plan guarantees the pension for 21 years. For direct insurance, the guarantee period is 10 years. For the period after the start of the pension period, your beneficiaries will receive the outstanding amount as a lump sum or as a regular pension.
If you die before retirement, your beneficiaries receive the payments to which you would have been entitled as a pension at this point. This survivors’ payment is made as a one-off lump-sum payment from the Fresenius Basic Plan.
In direct insurance, the payments are made as regular payments for life for adults, with a time limit applying for children. In this case in particular, there are often large gaps in survivors' insurance cover: Not only is there no regular income, but the earlier a family member dies, the lower the benefits. If this provision is not sufficient for your family, you can increase your protection by making use of our option.
Fresenius Basic Plan: Better protection for when you need it most
If you select the survivor cover option from the Fresenius Basic Plan, you increase your family’s protection by increasing the pay-out sum. You decide the level of cover because you know best how much financial support your family needs to meet financial obligations and to make up for loss of income in the event of an emergency. However, please bear in mind that the higher your level of cover, the lower your pension as the Fresenius contribution is split between pension and risk cover.
The option comes into effect if you die before entering retirement. If you die after entering retirement, your survivors will not receive higher payments, even if you make use of the option. Additional cover can therefore be a wise choice initially, when contributions are low.
Who receives payments?
Survivors are legally defined as follows: if you are married or in a registered civil partnership, your partner will receive the payments. Otherwise, the payments can be made to children for whom child benefit payments are made. If neither apply to you, the payment can be made to a companion with whom you are in a marriage-like relationship. However, this person must be named in advance.
Risk of incapacity
Secure your livelihood
The question of how to secure a livelihood is one which hangs over anyone unable to work for a long time due to incapacity. If you select the incapacity cover option in the Fresenius Basic Plan, you can create a safety net up to retirement - with incapacity cover equivalent to the currently guaranteed pension. And, for cover with incapacity payments of up to €500 per month, there's no need for a health questionnaire as evidence of insurability.
And my pension?
You will feel the impact of long periods out of work on your pension, too. If you don’t pay anything in, you won’t be entitled to as much later down the line. With the Fresenius Basic Plan, however, your promised pension payments are guaranteed. Even if Fresenius ceases to make payments for you, you will receive the same payments in retirement as regular retirees.
If you would like the originally agreed old-age pension to be paid out under the direct insurance scheme as well, you can also make use of a premium waiver here. With this option, you ensure that occupational incapacity does not leave a gap in your planned later-life provision. A basic health questionnaire is usually sufficient for the application. If you choose this option within the first 18 months of your employment at Fresenius, you don’t even need that.
Not as rare as you think
The reasons
Is 795 euros enough?
Not as rare as you think
For most employees, becoming unable to work means a sudden break in life planning. Many underestimate the risk of this happening. One in four people become incapacitated at least once for a certain period of time in their life, on average at a very early stage. The average age in 2019 was 44 years.
The reasons
Accidents are not the only reason for a restriction of capacity to work. Mental health issues can affect people of all ages and are becoming more prevalent. Protracted illnesses such as burn-out or depression now account for almost 43% of people leaving the labour force, compared to 13% leaving due to cancer.
Is 795 euros enough?
If you are no longer able to work or can only work to a limited extent, you will receive a reduced earning capacity pension from your statutory pension insurance. In 2018, this was €795 on average. Usually, this is not enough to cover everyday living costs.
In the case of occupational incapacity, you get even less: Occupational incapacity means that you are “only” incapacitated as regards your ability to practise your previous profession. Workers born after 1961 receive no payments from statutory pension insurance for occupational incapacity. This is also the case for Fresenius Pensions. So, it is worth thinking about supplementary cover early on.
Change with the time
Life very rarely follows a straight line. So, you should tailor your occupational pension to your life circumstances. For this reason, with the Fresenius Basic Plan, you can opt in or out of additional cover options every three years. But, you can also make adjustments for when your life circumstances change, for instance when you get married, have children or get a divorce. Please contact us if you need to make changes.
Please be aware that the above does not apply for direct insurance premium waivers. You must make a one-off decision on this level of insurance when you decide to participate.
Weigh up the risks and act now
Additional payments are financed from regular contributions. The pension amount declines as a result. Before you make a decision, you should assess your personal circumstances and consider which risks you want to obtain additional cover for.