Company pension scheme

By 2025, there will be six million job vacancies in Germany. In the competition for talent, business entities face the challenge of attracting applicants and employees through customised compensation models and working conditions.

At the same time, retirement planning is a social issue that affects everyone and has also become the focus of politics (“fear of poverty among the elderly”). Attractive and innovative pension schemes help to make you a more attractive employer and make a valuable contribution toward combatting poverty among the elderly.

On the other hand, the sustained low-interest phase presents new challenges for the company pension scheme. Pension provisions will continue to rise or remain at a high level over the next few years. In addition, external pension providers are faced with the challenge of fulfilling past promises of coverage despite lower returns. In light of this, it is necessary to future-proof the financing of your pension obligations. In corporate transactions, it is therefore essential to develop suitable strategies with regard to pension obligations and to attach adequate importance to them as part of your due diligence.

We are a strategic advisor for management, HR and Finance. Together with you, we will develop customised solutions for company pension schemes (CPSs) that fit into your staffing and compensation policy in a meaningful way, while also taking into account your financial and budgetary requirements.

We also help you develop and implement appropriate processes to effectively manage the risks and costs of your pension systems. In this way, we optimise the contribution of the company pension scheme to the value creation and goal achievement of your company.

We help you identify the best solution for any affected pension obligations during internal restructuring and corporate transactions. In the event of a business acquisition, we support you in the legally or contractually required continuation of the acquired pension arrangements and tell you how you can integrate them into your existing pension and administration structures in the medium term. For corporate transactions involving consideration, we assist you in analysing the pension obligations concerned with regard to costs and risks and help you agree on an appropriate purchase price adjustment in negotiations with the other party and formulate adequate provisions in the purchase agreement.

Our advice will always be independent and neutral. We do not receive commissions from third parties. Nor do we offer our own pension schemes, such as pension funds or trust schemes. This enables us to provide objective and cost-transparent advice that focuses exclusively on your company goals and is free of any conflicts of interest.

The services we offer include the following areas:

• Pension design

We design tailored and modern concepts for your employees’ company pension schemes with a view to supporting your overall HR strategy. We identify a combination of implementation methods that is tailor-made for you. We also incorporate the use of modern communication technologies and media to foster employee’s appreciation and their willingness to participate.

• Financing strategy

We work with you to determine the best possible financing for your company pension scheme, which is optimally aligned with your financial, liquidity and budgetary strategy. We help you find the best possible provider for your chosen financing approach.

• Risk management

We identify and analyse the risks associated with your CPS and support you in setting up CPS risk management. In doing so, we develop competence guidelines, responsibilities and process definitions to improve the tax mechanisms within the framework of your pension governance.

• Process optimisation

We analyse your processes for the daily management of the CPS and help you optimise it with regard to efficiency and consistency with the law. We also support you in digitising your CPS.

• Transaction advisory

We tell you how you can deal with the existing pension obligations or those to be assumed in the event of a type II spin-off or a sale or acquisition of business entities or business units. We show you the strategic courses of action available to you. In addition, we assist you in the financial and risk-related analysis of the relevant pension obligations and assist you in negotiating for an appropriate purchase price adjustment.

• Analysis and consolidation

We analyse the cost of your pension obligations and prepare actuarial reports for your financial statements as well as actuarial forecasts for planning purposes. We also support you as a “Global Actuary” from the start of consolidation to full accounting and reporting.

• Accounting

We support you with complex special questions regarding the accounting of your CPS and the implementation of new commercial law requirements. With this in mind, we evaluate the option of a contractual trust arrangement (CTA) and consider the option of asset transfers or withdrawals.

• Tax and labour law*) advice
  

We advise you in tax matters regarding the CPS. Our cooperation partner, KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, complements our advice on aspects of the CPS under labour law. In the event of restructuring of the CPS, in ongoing pension arrangements or even in transaction situations, we assess the effects of the relevant framework conditions and the current case law on your CPS.

*) The legal services will be provided by KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH.

You can find current publications on company pension schemes here.