Product Specification#
Status: Drafted 2026-08-29 with no document retrieved; re-verified against the primary documents on 2026-08-30, when 19 of this product’s 32 source entries were opened and read.
Scope note. A representative composite specification assembled for reference liability
cash-flow modeling of a German sofortbeginnende private Rentenversicherung — the Sofortrente:
a single Einmalbeitrag (single premium) buys a Leibrente (life annuity) that begins at once and
is paid for as long as the annuitant lives. It is not any single insurer’s contract: it is
assembled from four condition sets that do cover this product — NÜRNBERGER’s tariff NR3303 [S4],
Zurich Deutscher Herold’s pack [S2], CosmosDirekt’s LA 904 A [S6] and the GDV’s own model conditions
[S1] — and no carrier would recognise the whole of it. [S#] tags name primary product documents
(Verbraucherinformation, Allgemeine Versicherungsbedingungen, Produktinformationsblatt,
Basisinformationsblatt, Überschussverteilung) and [R#] product-specific regulatory and actuarial
references, both numbered per _research/sofortrente.md and resolved in sources.md (frozen, never
renumbered); [REG-R#] tags the cross-product library
references/regulatory-and-actuarial-references.md, whose R1–R56 numbering is separately frozen.
std marks a standardization introduced for the reference implementation, each with a numbered
footnote giving its rationale and, where one exists, the observed range; claims no retrieved
document corroborates are flagged unverified. German terms of art stay in German, italicised on
first use.
Retrieval conditions, stated first because they govern every line below. This file was
drafted under a policy that blocked all egress: WebFetch and curl were refused with HTTP 403
for gesetze-im-internet.de, bafin.de, gdv.de, aktuar.de, destatis.de, eur-lex.europa.eu
and every insurer host named here, and the session’s 200-call WebSearch budget was exhausted
before work on this product began, so not one search was run for the Sofortrente. The first
draft therefore rested on the authoring model’s own knowledge of German insurance law and practice,
disciplined by std and unverified tags and by facts carried over with attribution from a
sibling delib research file, principally _research/klassische_rentenversicherung.md, which shares
this product’s Rechnungsgrundlagen (calculation bases), its surplus chassis and, at two carriers,
its tariff. That policy has since been lifted and these citations re-verified against the primary
documents. On 2026-08-30 the insurer condition sets and pre-contractual packs [S2] [S3] [S4] [S5]
[S6] [S8] [S14], one carrier group’s Überschussverteilung [S10], the GDV’s model conditions [S1]
and its survivor’s-annuity rider set [S9] were retrieved as PDFs and read, and every statutory
provision this file cites under its own [R#] ids was read as canonical XML from
gesetze-im-internet.de with the instrument’s amendment Stand recorded. Of the 32 source
entries in sources.md, 19 now read Retrieved: yes and 12 read no, one (R20) being mixed.
The twelve that failed are of four kinds, set out entry by entry there: two pre-contractual classes
of which no carrier publishes a specimen [S11] [S12], plus the Standmitteilung an insurer sends to
a policyholder rather than publishes [S15]; DAV material that is not on the open web at all R8
R10 R11 R12; one paywalled market study R22 and two publisher series not located at any
address R18 R25; and two research artefacts with no single document behind them [S13] R23.
A Retrieved: yes citation means the document was opened and the passage read; a Retrieved: no
citation is still a pointer, not a certificate, and is marked as one. The re-verification changed
this specification — it withdrew claims the draft got wrong, and each correction is recorded where
it bites rather than gathered here. What it did not change is the shape of the evidence: the corpus
establishes this product’s mechanics at clause level and its levels hardly at all, exactly
one carrier’s guaranteed-annuity scale having been located [S8], no charge parameter and no total
annuity including declared surplus having been established at any German carrier for any year.
There is therefore still no insurer-level quantitative comparison anywhere below, the variations
section is structural rather than numeric, and every euro and percentage describing the
representative design is either std with its derivation printed, or tagged to a document that
was read, or tagged to a cross-product reference.
Out of scope. The accumulation phase of a deferred annuity is the separate delib product
klassische_rentenversicherung; premium accumulation, the Deckungskapital recursion, the
Rückkaufswert, Beitragsfreistellung and the Kapitalwahlrecht belong there. Schicht 1
(Basisrente) and Schicht 2 (Riester-Rente, bAV) run the same payout machinery under
completely different tax rules REG-R38. Fondsgebundene and indexgebundene payout annuities,
Sterbegeldversicherung, Pflegerentenversicherung, Gruppenversicherung, private
Krankenversicherung and institutional pension-risk transfer are all outside this file.
Product overview and market role#
A Sofortrente is an ordinary German life insurance contract under the Versicherungsvertragsgesetz (VVG) REG-R22, written on the insurer’s general account (Sicherungsvermögen) REG-R7, in the classic (konventionell) non-unit-linked form [S2] [S6]. Structurally it is one sentence long: one payment in at inception; a stream of payments out until death, floored by a Rentengarantiezeit (guarantee period) or a Kapitalrückgewähr (refund of the unconsumed capital on death) and lifted by a declared, non-guaranteed Überschussrente (surplus annuity). What it sells is the transfer of Langlebigkeitsrisiko to an insurer. The Versicherungsnehmer contracts and pays; the versicherte Person is the life the annuity depends on; a mitversicherte Person may be named for a Hinterbliebenenrente; a Bezugsberechtigter receives whatever falls due after death REG-R26. Usually the first three are one person; where they are not, § 150 VVG requires the insured person’s written consent above a threshold expressed in ordinary funeral costs, and the designation is revocable unless made irrevocably REG-R26.
Schicht 3, and why the tax rule is the product. The Sofortrente is a third-layer, unsubsidised private contract in the Drei-Schichten-Modell REG-R38: nothing is deductible going in, and only the Ertragsanteil — a fixed statutory fraction of each payment, set once by the annuitant’s age at Rentenbeginn and never changed — is taxable coming out R13 REG-R41. For an annuity commencing at 65 that fraction is 18 % R13, the only cell of the statutory table any delib search corroborated. The asymmetry against the subsidised layers is total: a Schicht-1 Rentenfreibetrag is frozen in euros for life, so every later increase — including every increase in the Überschussrente — is fully taxable, whereas in Schicht 3 it is the percentage that is frozen, so surplus increases are taxed at the same light rate REG-R41. That is the whole economic case for the product, and the reason it is bought with money already taxed: an inheritance, a property sale, a matured endowment, a severance payment, or a Kapitalwahlrecht lump sum.
Its structural role: the pricing primitive of every other German annuity. Two carriers’ AVB
state, in their own contract terms, that the factor at which a deferred contract converts is the
tariff the insurer is then writing for immediately beginning annuities. NÜRNBERGER’s deferred
tariff NIR3301 is explicit to the point of naming the tariff: the conversion uses “unserem dann
aktuellen Rechnungszins und unserer dann aktuellen unternehmenseigenen anerkannten Sterbetafel …
maßgeblich sind Rechnungszins und Sterbetafel in der Beitragskalkulation vergleichbarer, dann bei
uns zum Verkauf geöffneter Rentenversicherungen mit sofort beginnender Rentenzahlung”, with
“Beispiel: Zum Zeitpunkt des Abschlusses Ihres Vertrags war in diesem Sinne der Tarif NR3303
vergleichbar” — NR3303 being the carrier’s own immediate-annuity tariff [S5] [S4]. Zurich Deutscher
Herold converts accumulated surplus at Rentenbeginn “unter Zugrundelegung von Rechnungszins und
Sterbetafel, die zum Zeitpunkt des Übergangs in die Rentenzahlung für diese dann vorgesehen sind”
[S3]. A model of this product is therefore also the conversion engine of
klassische_rentenversicherung, fondsgebundene_rentenversicherung, indexpolice, basisrente
and riester_rente.
Market size. No figure isolates this product: the GDV series separates Einmalbeiträge from laufende Beiträge in new business, but that line aggregates Sofortrenten with single-premium endowments, bAV contributions and Zuzahlungen R25. On the cross-product aggregates, German life premium income was +2,8 % to 94,6 Mrd € in 2024, of which laufende Beiträge were 66,3 Mrd €, roughly flat, while the Einmalbeitragsgeschäft grew about 10 % to 28 Mrd €; the contract count fell 1,4 % to 80,3 Mio REG-R53. Single premium is now roughly 30 % of German life premium income and growing an order of magnitude faster than regular premium — the structural reason this product is live. No number of Sofortrente contracts, no average Einmalbeitrag and no average purchase age was established (research gap 7).
The 2025 interest step, which matters more here than anywhere else. The Höchstrechnungszins — the statutory maximum discount rate for the Deckungsrückstellung, and through § 138 Abs. 1 VAG the effective cap on a new tariff’s technical rate REG-R8 REG-R14 — fell for thirty years to 0,25 % and rose to 1,00 % on 1 January 2025, the first increase since 1994 REG-R15; the DAV recommended 1,0 % again for 2026 and 2027 R8 REG-R56. For a deferred contract the rate matters over a thirty-year accumulation; for a Sofortrente, the rate at which the tariff is struck fixes the buyer’s whole income, permanently, on the day of purchase — worth about +10 % on the guaranteed annuity at 65 and +12 % at 60, tapering to +6 % at 80 on the std arithmetic below. The direction falls out of the tariff formula [S6] and the statutory rate history REG-R15; the magnitude is constructed, not observed (gap 5).
What it is bought against. The standard German comparator is a Bankauszahlplan: the same capital drawn down at a bank until exhausted. The plan ends — 100 000 € drawn at 400 € a month at 2 % is exhausted after 26,9 years, at about age 92 std (14) — whereas the annuity does not; the annuity is taxed on 18 % of each instalment R13 while the plan’s interest is taxable in full; and the annuitant gives up the capital irreversibly and does badly by dying early. The honest framing: a Sofortrente is insurance against outliving one’s money, priced like insurance. One market fact does not transfer here: the classic deferred annuity was withdrawn by Debeka in 2016 and by Allianz, Zurich and Generali before it [S7] [S8], but no equivalent retreat from the immediate annuity was established — and there is a structural reason not to expect one, the objection to the deferred contract having been a thirty-year interest guarantee where an immediate annuity’s real risk is longevity, which no design removes. An argument, not a finding (gap 14).
Representative specification#
What “representative” means here. In the sister libraries a composite is the mode of an observed range across retrieved carriers. That method is still unavailable here, but for a narrower reason than before. The corpus now holds four insurer condition sets that cover the immediate annuity — NÜRNBERGER’s AVB for tariff NR3303 [S4], Zurich Deutscher Herold’s Verbraucherinformation for the sofort beginnende Rentenversicherung [S2], CosmosDirekt’s LA 904 A, whose § 1 covers the immediate form [S6], and the GDV’s own model conditions for it [S1] — so the mechanics below are argued from clause text at named carriers. What no document supplies is a comparison: exactly one carrier’s rate scale was located [S8] and no two carriers can be put on the same case, so every level below remains a construction. Each value is argued from one of exactly three things and the Basis column says which: a mechanic the corpus establishes at clause level at a named carrier; a statutory or professional rule from the cross-product library; or the modeller’s construction, tagged std with its arithmetic printed. Where the third applies and no observed range exists the footnote says so in those words: a std with no range is weaker than one with a range.
Product identity and issue rules#
Parameter |
Representative value |
Basis |
|---|---|---|
Design type |
Single-premium immediate life annuity on the general account, konventionell, profit-participating |
[S2] [S6]; participation statutory REG-R24 |
Legal form |
German Lebensversicherung under the VVG; Neubestand (concluded after 29 July 1994) |
|
Tax layer |
Schicht 3 — no Sonderausgabenabzug, no Zulage, no certification; Ertragsanteil on payout |
|
Lives basis |
Single life; a second life may be added as a Hinterbliebenenrenten-Zusatzversicherung |
[S9] |
Premium form |
One Einmalbeitrag, paid once at inception. No premium stream, no Beitragsdynamik, no Ratenzahlungszuschlag |
[S2] [S6]; structural |
Entry ages |
60 to 85 |
envelope std (1); one carrier maximum read, 85 [S7] |
Einmalbeitrag |
Minimum 10 000 €; working range 25 000 € – 500 000 €; representative case 100 000 € |
envelope std (2); one carrier minimum read, 3 000 € [S7] |
Aufschubzeit (deferment) |
0 years representative; 0 to 15 years offered |
std (3) |
Underwriting |
None. No medical evidence, no Gesundheitsprüfung |
std (4), unverified |
Sex |
Tariff unisex for business written from 21 December 2012; the profession’s tables are sex-distinct |
|
Rechnungszins |
1,00 % for a 2025 or 2026 contract, at or below the Höchstrechnungszins of the contract’s own vintage |
REG-R14 REG-R15; 1,00 % read in three carriers’ AVB [S2] [S3] [S4] |
Anchor model cell |
100 000 €, annuitant male aged 65 (born 1960), inception 2025, Rechnungszins 1,00 %, Rentengarantiezeit 10 years, monthly vorschüssig, teildynamische Überschussrente |
std (5) |
One carrier’s upper limit is now established and the lower is not: Allianz gives a Höchsteintrittsalter of 85 Jahre for the lifelong form [S7], and [S2]’s bAV wrapper a Mindestrentenalter of 62, which is a Schicht-2 tax constraint and not a retail one. A typical retail window in the sixties remains unverified. 60 to 85 is adopted because below 60 the Ertragsanteil is high enough (22 % at 60 against 18 % at 65 REG-R41) to weaken the tax case the product exists for, and above 85 the Rentengarantiezeit options collapse — a 20-year guarantee at 85 costs a quarter of the annuity. The boundaries claim to be no carrier’s.
One carrier’s minimum is now established and it is far below the std envelope: Allianz accepts a Mindesteinmalbeitrag of 3 000 € [S7], against the five-figure minimum this specification assumed on the argument that fixed per-policy cost swamps a small annuity. The envelope is not moved in this pass — one carrier is not a market, and the model points are built on it — but it is now known to be conservative at the bottom. No upper limit was established at any carrier. 100 000 € remains the unit German immediate annuities are quoted in — Rente je 100 000 € Einmalbeitrag — while the deferred market quotes a Rentenfaktor per 10 000 € R20; Debeka quotes per 50 000 € [S8], so the unit is not uniform either.
The variant exists but no carrier’s terms, minimum, maximum or deferment death benefit were established, and the corpus’s one candidate turned out not to be one: the Mecklenburgische “Rente flex” is a Private Rentenversicherung mit flexiblem Fondsanteil (Hybrid), a unit-linked deferred annuity [S14]. Gap 17 therefore closes as a negative finding. The design takes 0 — which is what makes the contract a Sofortrente rather than a single-premium deferred annuity — and carries the deferment as a model-point column so it can be switched on.
A Sofortrente is normally written without medical underwriting, because the exposure runs the wrong way: medical evidence would be used by the applicant, not the insurer, so the selection sits in the tariff margin rather than in an individual assessment. The tag stays: none of the four retrieved condition sets for this product mentions a Gesundheitsprüfung either way, and silence is not a statement — though [S5] lists “keine Möglichkeit unsererseits zur Risikoprüfung” among the features that make an immediate-annuity tariff comparable, which is the nearest the corpus comes; hence still unverified; its converse, the impaired-life enhanced annuity, is not established to exist in the German retail market, and § 19 VVG’s Anzeigepflicht REG-R30 is inert where the insurer asks nothing.
Age 65 is where the corroborated Ertragsanteil applies R13 and where the std annuity table is anchored; the 10-year guarantee sits at the short end of the market’s typical band (15 years to age 70, 10 thereafter, most choosing 10 to 20 R23) so the certain window fits a readable worked-example table; and the 2025 inception puts the cell on the current 1,00 % rate REG-R15.
Benefit provisions#
Parameter |
Representative value |
Basis |
|---|---|---|
Main benefit |
A Leibrente: a level guaranteed monthly annuity for as long as the annuitant lives |
[S6] [S7] R23 |
Determination |
|
|
Guarantee |
The garantierte Rente is guaranteed for life and is not adjustable; § 163 VVG is the only channel and it is narrow |
|
Payment frequency |
Monthly standard; quarterly, half-yearly and annual exist and are read at four sources |
[S1] [S2] [S6] [S7] |
Payment timing |
Vorschüssig — in advance; first instalment at inception. The retrieved AVB say the market pays in arrears; the model’s convention is not changed in this pass |
std (8) |
Überschussrente |
Declared annually out of surplus actually earned; not guaranteed and reducible |
|
Überschussverwendung |
Three forms in the consumer literature — konstant (also flexibel), teildynamisch, volldynamisch — elected at Rentenbeginn, here at inception, irrevocably: “Ein Wechsel der Überschussverwendungsarten ist ausgeschlossen” [S4]. Bonusrente is a carrier’s name for the crediting mechanic, not a fourth category |
|
Bewertungsreserven |
Participation continues during the annuity payment period, currently hälftig under § 153 Abs. 3 VVG — read at three carriers |
[S2] [S3] [S10]; REG-R24 |
Rentengarantiezeit |
10 years representative; 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30+ offered, or none |
|
Death inside it |
The annuity continues to the beneficiaries until the agreed number of years has expired |
|
Death after it |
Nothing is payable unless a Kapitalrückgewähr or Hinterbliebenenrente was bought |
R23; structural |
Kapital-/Beitragsrückgewähr |
Optional: the Einmalbeitrag less the instalments already paid, floored at zero — and two AVB confirm the deduction is measured on the guaranteed annuity: “bereits gezahlter Renten (bereits gezahlte Renten werden nur in der Höhe der zu Vertragsbeginn garantierten Renten abgezogen)” [S2], “abzgl. der bis zum Todeszeitpunkt gezahlten garantierten Renten” [S6] |
[S2] [S6] R23 (9) |
Hinterbliebenenrente |
Optional rider: 60 % or 100 % to a named second life, for that life’s remaining lifetime, beginning only after any Rentengarantiezeit has run out |
[S1] [S9]; percentages unverified — the model conditions state none |
Capital option |
None after Rentenbeginn; the annuity may not be commuted at the policyholder’s election. “Eine sofort beginnende Rentenversicherung können Sie nicht kündigen” [S4] |
|
Settlement on death |
To the Bezugsberechtigter, not automatically to the estate |
The payment timing is now established, and it contradicts this specification’s convention. Two carriers’ AVB put the first instalment one payment period after inception: NÜRNBERGER, “Die erste Rente wird einen Monat nach dem vereinbarten Versicherungsbeginn gezahlt. Die garantierte monatliche Rente wird an jedem Monatsersten gezahlt” [S4]; and CosmosDirekt, for which “bei Leibrentenversicherungen mit sofort beginnender Rentenzahlung gegen Einmalbeitrag wird die erste Rente je nach vereinbarter Rentenzahlungsweise ein Jahr, ein halbes Jahr, ein viertel Jahr oder einen Monat nach dem vereinbarten Versicherungsbeginn gezahlt” [S6]. The GDV template pays “an den vereinbarten Fälligkeitstagen” and does not settle it [S1]. The German market convention for a Sofortrente is therefore payment in arrears, not in advance. The effect is first-order: advance against arrears moves the annuity value by roughly half a month’s interest and shifts every payout cash flow by one period. On the std basis at 1,00 %,
a12_due − a12_arrears = 1, so the annuity per 100 000 € at 65 is100 000 / (12 × 19.426) = 428,99 €in arrears against 407,98 € in advance — 5,1 % from a single convention. Vorschüssig is nevertheless retained as the std convention in this pass: every arithmetic in the research file, the worked example and its golden tests are built on an annuity-due, and moving them is a deliberate decision rather than a documentation fix. It is now a convention known to be the minority one, which is a stronger statement than the gap it replaces (gap 11 closes as a contradiction).The refund is measured against the guaranteed annuity, and two AVB now say so: “bereits gezahlte Renten werden nur in der Höhe der zu Vertragsbeginn garantierten Renten abgezogen” [S2] and “abzgl. der bis zum Todeszeitpunkt gezahlten garantierten Renten” [S6]. What the design had adopted as an argument — that a guaranteed benefit cannot be defined by reference to a discretionary quantity — is the market’s rule, and the std tag on the basis of the netting comes off. Both AVB also confirm the floor at zero: once cumulative guaranteed instalments reach the Einmalbeitrag, “so erlischt der Anspruch” [S2] (gap 10 closes on this point; whether carriers permit the refund combined with a guarantee period is still not established).
Underwriting and rating#
Parameter |
Representative value |
Basis |
|---|---|---|
Medical evidence |
None |
std (4), unverified |
Rating factors |
Attained age at Rentenbeginn; birth cohort; the elected options; the Einmalbeitrag. Sex may not be a rating factor for business written from 21 December 2012 |
[S6]; unisex REG-R34 |
Mortality basis |
DAV 2004 R at two carriers, a company table at a third. Zurich Deutscher Herold: “Die Kalkulation … basiert auf der Sterbetafel DAV 2004R (Aggregattafel); es wird ein Rechnungszins in Höhe von 1,00 % verwendet” [S2] [S3]. NÜRNBERGER prices the same product on “die anerkannte Rententafel NÜRNBERGER Tafel 2013 R mit einem garantierten Rechnungszins von 1 % p. a.” [S4]. DAV 2004 R is the profession’s reference, not a mandate REG-R47 |
|
Table type |
A Generationentafel — a two-dimensional basis |
|
First against second order |
First-order probabilities carry safety margins relative to the second-order (“realistic”) ones. For an annuity, prudent means lighter mortality and a stronger improvement trend — safety in two dimensions |
|
Interest basis |
The insurer’s own choice at or below the cap, § 2 DeckRV setting a maximum and not a rate REG-R14. Every retrieved tariff prices at the cap of its own vintage: 1,00 % in three 2025/2026 AVB [S2] [S3] [S4], 0,90 % in a 01/2017 one [S6], each equal to the Höchstrechnungszins then in force REG-R15. No below-cap pricing was observed |
|
Anti-selection |
Real, and not underwritten away — [S5] lists “keine Möglichkeit unsererseits zur Risikoprüfung” as a defining feature of an immediate-annuity tariff; the table is understood to carry Selektionsfaktoren for exactly that |
[S5]; REG-R49; the Selektionsfaktoren unverified |
Altersverschiebung |
DAV 2004 R carries an age-adjustment component; its convention was not established |
R10; gap 12 |
What delib ships instead of the table. DAV 2004 R and DAV 2004 R-Bestand are the property of the
Deutsche Aktuarvereinigung, distributed to members rather than published, and not
redistributable; delib ships no version of either and quotes no q_x, no improvement rate
and no annuity factor from them REG-R47 REG-R49. The decrement CSV shipped with Sofort_DE_S is
a std proxy, anchored so the worked example reproduces exactly, and a replacement must
preserve three things: the generational structure — a q(x, cohort) surface, because a
period-table proxy applied to a forty-year annuity understates the liability by a margin that dwarfs
every other assumption in the model REG-R49; the first-order margin in both dimensions, level
and trend REG-R47; and the Altersverschiebung convention R10. Destatis’s
Generationensterbetafeln are the free public analogue and the intended base REG-R52. Of the
Bestand variant, the table for the in-force annuity book, nothing beyond the pairing with the
new-business table was established R11 (gap 12) — though it matters here, a
Sofortrente being priced once on the new-business table and then spending thirty years in the
Bestand.
The unisex tension bites harder here than on any other delib product. German annuity tables are built sex-distinctly while a tariff sold since 21 December 2012 must be unisex REG-R34 REG-R49, and a Sofortrente is the purest longevity bet in the market, so a unisex tariff must be struck on an assumed portfolio sex mix no insurer publishes. The realised mix drives the Risikoergebnis the MindZV then shares REG-R18, and the reference implementation’s decrement table is a unisex std proxy with a stated mix assumption, described as one (gap 13).
Charges#
Parameter |
Representative value |
Basis |
|---|---|---|
Abschluss- und Vertriebskosten α |
2,5 % of the Einmalbeitrag, once |
std (6) |
Annuity administration loading β |
2,0 % of each annuity payment |
std (6) |
Stornoabzug |
None, ever. § 169 Abs. 5 VVG permits a deduction only where agreed, quantified and appropriate — and there is no surrender to deduct from |
REG-R28; structural |
Effektivkosten (VVG-InfoV) |
Not established for this product at any carrier |
REG-R31; gap 8 |
Renditeminderung (PRIIPs) |
Not established, and whether a payout-only Sofortrente is within PRIIPs scope is itself unresolved |
[S12] REG-R32; gap 8 |
Effect of both std charges |
On the std gross annuity of 407,98 € at 65 and 1,00 %: |
std (10) |
A constructed illustration, not a market rate: printing the construction is the only honest alternative to printing a fabricated quotation, and no German carrier’s quotation, at any age, for any year, appears anywhere in this specification (gap 5). BaFin’s Merkblatt 01/2023 (VA) on Wohlverhaltensaufsicht — which polices Effektivkosten against a sector comparison and requires a return target for the target market REG-R35 — is addressed to kapitalbildende products, and whether the supervisor scrutinises Rentenhöhe or surplus declarations on a payout annuity was not established R18.
Termination and values#
Parameter |
Representative value |
Basis |
|---|---|---|
Surrender (Rückkauf) |
None once the Rentenbezug has begun. For a Sofortrente, whose Rentenbeginn is at or within weeks of inception, the contract is irrevocable from the outset, and three condition sets say so in terms |
|
Rückkaufswert |
None. § 169 VVG never engages — its Abs. 1 reaches only a contract on which the insurer’s obligation is certain to arise — so there is no surrender-value table, no Stornoabzug and no five-year cost-spreading rule to implement |
|
Lapse |
None. A policyholder cannot lapse a contract they cannot terminate and on which no premium is due |
R1; structural |
Beitragsfreistellung |
None. § 165 VVG has no application: there is no premium to stop |
|
Termination of the contract |
On the annuitant’s death, subject to any Rentengarantiezeit still running, any Kapitalrückgewähr then due and any Hinterbliebenenrente then beginning |
R23; structural |
Insolvency of the insurer |
Contracts transfer to Protektor Lebensversicherungs-AG, the statutory Sicherungsfonds |
|
Aufschubzeit qualification |
A deferment gives a pre-Rentenbeginn window in which the bar does not yet bite, so a surrender right may exist. No carrier’s terms established; the base run switches the variant off |
The discrepancy between two delib documents is now resolved, against the research file. The
research file stated that § 168 Abs. 3 VVG confines the right of termination in a
Rentenversicherung ohne Kapitalwahlrecht to the period before the annuity payments start R1,
flagging the paragraph number as unverified (gap 9); the cross-product library reported
§ 168 Abs. 3 instead as the carve-out excluding Abs. 1 and 2 for a Basisrentenvertrag certified
under § 5a AltZertG and where realisation was irrevocably excluded REG-R28. The section has now
been read, in the canonical XML at Stand zuletzt geändert durch Art. 12 G v. 26.5.2026: REG-R28
is right and the research file is wrong. Abs. 3 disapplies Abs. 1 and 2 only for those two pension
cases, and says nothing about Kapitalwahlrecht or about the start of payments. The route to the
same conclusion runs through Abs. 1 and 2 themselves. Abs. 1 gives a termination right only where
“laufende Prämien zu zahlen” sind — a Sofortrente has none — and Abs. 2 extends it to a single
premium only “bei einer Versicherung, die Versicherungsschutz für ein Risiko bietet, bei dem der
Eintritt der Verpflichtung des Versicherers gewiss ist”, which a pure Leibrente is not. § 169
falls away for the same reason, its Abs. 1 using the identical gateway phrase, so the Rückkaufswert
duty is inapplicable rather than displaced. The AVB implement exactly this: “Eine sofort
beginnende Rentenversicherung können Sie nicht kündigen. … Die Rückzahlung des Einmalbeitrags können
Sie nicht verlangen” [S4]; “Zu Lebzeiten der versicherten bzw. mitversicherten Person ist eine
Kündigung der Versicherung ausgeschlossen” [S2]; and in the GDV’s own template, “Sie können Ihren
Vertrag nicht kündigen. Die Rückzahlung des Einmalbeitrages können Sie nicht verlangen” [S1]. The
substance is what it always was: once the Rentenbezug has begun there is no termination right
and no Rückkaufswert. A surrenderable life annuity would be surrendered by exactly those annuitants
expecting to die soon, leaving the insurer with the long-lived; the bar is what makes the mortality
pooling possible. Consequently Sofort_DE_S publishes no surrender-value cells, no lapse
decrement, no paid-up state and no Stornoabzug; the only decrement is death, and the
behavioural assumption set every other delib product needs is empty — a specification, not a
simplification.
Contractual mechanics#
The Einmalbeitrag and the Nettoeinmalbeitrag#
The rule. The insurer deducts the acquisition and distribution loading and annuitises the
remainder: Nettoeinmalbeitrag = Einmalbeitrag × (1 − α) — “Bei Verträgen gegen Einmalbeitrag werden
von uns die Abschluss- und Vertriebskosten vollständig zu Vertragsbeginn mit diesem verrechnet”
[S4]. What it does: it fixes, once and
for all, the capital the annuity is struck against — no later accumulation, no Beitragsdynamik, no
second netting, so everything downstream is a division of this one number by an annuity factor. It
is also the whole of the product’s new-business strain, the acquisition cost falling at t = 0
against a single inflow, so the first period carries a large positive net_cf and every later
period a negative one.
Rentenhöhe — how the guaranteed annuity is struck#
The rule. R_garantiert = Einmalbeitrag × (1 − α) / (12 × a12(x, i) × (1 + β)), with a12(x, i)
the monthly annuity-due factor at attained age x and Rechnungszins i on the first-order
annuitant basis for the annuitant’s birth cohort [S2] R10. It settles three things. The
mortality basis is a first-order annuitant table, DAV 2004 R at some carriers and a company table
at others: Zurich Deutscher Herold prices this product on “die Sterbetafel DAV 2004R
(Aggregattafel)” [S2] [S3], NÜRNBERGER on “die anerkannte Rententafel NÜRNBERGER Tafel 2013 R” [S4].
No statute names a table REG-R56, so DAV 2004 R is the profession’s benchmark and not a mandate
REG-R47 REG-R49. The interest basis is the insurer’s choice at or below the cap, § 2 DeckRV
setting a maximum REG-R14 — but every retrieved tariff prices at the cap of its own vintage:
1,00 % in the three 2025/2026 AVB [S2] [S3] [S4], 0,90 % in a 01/2017 one [S6], each equal to the
Höchstrechnungszins then in force REG-R15. The library previously reported a carrier pricing a
guaranteed factor at 0 %; that claim came from a search summary and is not in the document, and
it has been withdrawn. The first-order margin therefore sits, on the retrieved evidence, in the
mortality basis rather than the interest one. And the factor is fixed at inception, here once
and never revisited, inception and Rentenbeginn being the same date.
The std annuity table, and the one market quotation now available to check it against.
Debeka publishes a Berechnungsbeispiel for its own Sofortrente on tariff S1, Stand
01.01.2025: on a single premium of 50 000 € with a 20-year Rentengarantiezeit, the
guaranteed monthly annuity is 133 € at 60, 151 € at 65 and 159 € at 67 [S8] — that is 302 € per
100 000 € at 65, a Rentenfaktor of 30,2 per 10 000 €. The std construction below, on the same
age, rate and guarantee period and net of both std charges, gives 349 € — about 16 % higher
than the one real quotation in the corpus. The gap is the honest measure of what a constructed
table is worth: it is consistent with the std Gompertz–Makeham proxy being lighter than a real
first-order German annuitant basis, with α and β being too small, or with both, and nothing in the
corpus separates the three. The model is not recalibrated to it in this pass — doing so would
move the worked example and its golden tests — and the std table below is unchanged; the
divergence is recorded here and in technical-notes.md so that no reader mistakes the constructed
figures for market rates. Market-average Rentenfaktoren for the deferred market, on the same
per-10 000 € unit, were 29,09 € in 2021 and 25,97 € in 2022 at the 0,25 % cap R20, which
brackets the Debeka figure in the right place once the rate step to 1,00 % is allowed for.
No annuity level was established at any carrier for any year when the specification was written, so
the research file constructs one on a stated Gompertz–Makeham proxy mu(x) = A + B·c^x with
A = 0,0002, B = 1,5 × 10⁻⁵, c = 1,10 — life expectancy 24,29 years at 65, q(65) = 0,00789, q(75) = 0,02001, q(85) = 0,05078 — a prudent annuitant shape of the right order for
a first-order German basis, and not DAV 2004 R R10. Monthly-in-advance via
a12 = a_due − 11/24; charges excluded. Gross annuity per 100 000 €, monthly in advance
std (11):
Age at Rentenbeginn |
60 |
65 |
70 |
75 |
80 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
i = 0,25 % |
314.43 |
369.64 |
443.58 |
544.89 |
687.02 |
i = 1,00 % |
352.08 |
407.98 |
482.84 |
585.32 |
728.86 |
i = 1,75 % |
391.63 |
447.93 |
523.40 |
626.75 |
771.44 |
|
23.669 |
20.426 |
17.259 |
14.237 |
11.433 |
uplift 0,25 % → 1,00 % |
+12.0 % |
+10.4 % |
+8.9 % |
+7.4 % |
+6.1 % |
Any cell checks as 100 000 / (12 × a12).
std, reproducible from the printed parameters, and not any carrier’s quotation — and now measurably above the one carrier quotation the corpus holds, by about 16 % at 65 [S8]. One of the two forces the specification originally named has been withdrawn: no retrieved carrier prices below the cap, every one pricing at its vintage’s Höchstrechnungszins [S2] [S4] [S6], so the difference from a real tariff must run through the first-order mortality margin and the charges. Two forces move it over time: improvement inside the Trendfunktion raises annuity values for each successive cohort, and any strengthening of the first-order margin does the same R10 REG-R49. Two cohorts buying ten years apart at the same Rechnungszins would not get the same annuity.
What is guaranteed. The garantierte Rente is guaranteed for life and is not adjustable. § 163 VVG is the only channel for changing a term after conclusion and needs three cumulative conditions — a change in the Leistungsbedarf that is neither temporary nor foreseeable, a new term appropriate and necessary to secure permanent fulfilment, and an independent Treuhänder’s confirmation — while excluding adjustment to the extent the benefits were insufficiently calculated in the first place REG-R27; the Landgericht Köln held the low-interest phase not a sufficient ground, being entrepreneurial risk (case reference not established) R4. A delib model treats the garantierte Rente as immutable and records § 163 as a model risk.
Rentengarantiezeit#
The rule. A guaranteed payment period runs from Rentenbeginn — at NÜRNBERGER expressly “ab
Versicherungsbeginn laufenden”, which for a Sofortrente is the same date [S4]. If the annuitant
dies inside it, the annuity continues to be paid to the beneficiaries until the agreed number of
years has expired: “Stirbt die versicherte Person während der Rentengarantiezeit, so wird die
monatliche Rente bis zum Ablauf der Rentengarantiezeit weiter gezahlt” [S4], and in the GDV template
“zahlen wir die vereinbarte Rente auch bei Tod der versicherten Person bis zum Ende der
Rentengarantiezeit” [S1]. Three carrier illustrations of the same arithmetic are now in the corpus —
ten years with death after three leaving seven [S1] [S4], twenty years with death after twelve
leaving eight [S8], and the portal cluster’s ten years with death after six R23. If the annuitant
survives it, it lapses silently. What it
does: it converts the first n years from a contingent payment into a certain one, which is
the whole modelling consequence — during the guarantee the payment must not be decremented for
survival, and after it, it must be. A model applying survival probabilities across the whole stream
understates the liability; one applying none overstates it.
Where it sits in the market. A tariff-level design feature carried in the product name at NÜRNBERGER, in both the deferred form — “… mit aufgeschobener Rentenzahlung und Rentengarantiezeit nach Tarif NIR3301” [S5] — and the immediate one, “… mit sofort beginnender Rentenzahlung und Rentengarantiezeit nach Tarif NR3303” [S4]. In the GDV template it is optional (“Wenn Sie mit uns eine Rentengarantiezeit vereinbart haben”) [S1], and at Allianz it is one of the options for which “müssen Sie eine geringere monatliche Rente akzeptieren oder extra zahlen” [S7] — so a Sofortrente with no guarantee period is a real configuration. The claim that the period “can be set to a minimum” was attributed to Allianz and is not on the retrieved page; it has been withdrawn. Durations offered are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or more than 30 years, typically 15 years for retirement ages 61–70 and 10 years for 71 and above, most choosing 10 to 20 R23. What it costs, on the std basis at 1,00 %, age 65, per 100 000 € std (12):
Rentengarantiezeit |
none |
5 y |
10 y |
15 y |
20 y |
25 y |
30 y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
20.426 |
20.530 |
20.897 |
21.624 |
22.821 |
24.591 |
26.972 |
Monthly annuity |
407.98 |
405.92 |
398.78 |
385.38 |
365.16 |
338.87 |
308.97 |
Reduction |
— |
0.51 % |
2.26 % |
5.54 % |
10.50 % |
16.94 % |
24.27 % |
std, same basis,
a12replaced by an annuity-certain-due ofnyears plus ann-year-deferred life annuity. The cost rises steeply with age, because the guarantee bites sooner: a 10-year guarantee costs 2,26 % at 65, 4,10 % at 70 and 7,42 % at 75, a 20-year one 10,50 %, 17,20 % and 26,71 % — which is why the market’s typical duration falls with age R23. The corpus’s consumer illustration on a deferred contract puts the same three at roughly 0,5 %, 2,6 % and 8,0 % R23: consistent in shape, different in level, neither a tariff.
Two settlement forms exist and only one is modelled. The instalments may continue as they fall due or the Restgarantiezeit may be commuted, and both AVB that address it make commutation an election of the claimant rather than the carrier’s default: “Auf Antrag kann der Wert der bis zum Ablauf der Rentengarantiezeit noch ausstehenden Renten … auch als einmalige Kapitalleistung ausgezahlt werden” [S4], and “Alternativ steht dem Bezugsberechtigten die Möglichkeit offen, das für die Rentengarantiezeit zum Todeszeitpunkt zur Verfügung stehende Deckungskapital in einer Summe ausgezahlt zu erhalten” [S6]. The two are not the same quantity — NÜRNBERGER commutes the outstanding instalments excluding future increases, CosmosDirekt the Deckungskapital — and no take-up rate was established. The model pays the instalments, which is the default in both texts.
Kapital- und Beitragsrückgewähr#
The rule. On death the insurer refunds the Einmalbeitrag less the annuity instalments already paid, floored at zero — so the benefit starts at the full Einmalbeitrag and runs to nothing over roughly the period in which the annuitant recovers the capital nominally, on the std basis about 21,5 years at 65. The trap inside it: a larger refund means a smaller annuity, and a smaller annuity means the refund runs off more slowly, so the pricing equation is implicit in R:
Einmalbeitrag = 12 × R × a12(x, i) + PV( max(Einmalbeitrag − 12 × R × t, 0) payable on death at t )
It must be solved, not evaluated: computing the plain annuity first and then subtracting a refund cost gets a different — and wrong — answer. On the std basis at 1,00 %, age 65, per 100 000 €, the monthly annuity falls from 407,98 € to 335,48 €, −17,8 % std (13) — materially more than a 20-year guarantee period, and the honest answer to a buyer who asks why the “money-back” version pays so much less.
std, solving the equation above with deaths at mid-year and the refund discounted from mid-year. Market variants — volle Beitragsrückgewähr, a stated percentage, a refund capped at a number of years’ payments — exist, but no carrier’s variant was established. The refund and the Rentengarantiezeit protect the same risk in different shapes and are usually offered as alternatives; which carriers permit the combination was not established (gap 10), so the design treats them as mutually exclusive std and the model asserts that exclusivity rather than silently permitting an unsupported configuration.
Hinterbliebenenrente and its Anwartschaft#
The rule. A second life — the mitversicherte Person — is named at inception. While the
annuitant lives, the main annuity is paid and the second life holds an Anwartschaft: a
contingent, not-yet-payable entitlement. On the annuitant’s death, if the second life is then alive,
the Hinterbliebenenrente begins at a stated percentage and is paid for that life’s remaining
lifetime. If the second life predeceases the annuitant the entitlement lapses and nothing is
refunded — the cover has been consumed. What it does: it makes the contract a
joint-life-last-survivor annuity, the liability running
until both lives are dead, so the second life’s age and sex matter as much as the annuitant’s, and
that life is fixed at inception unverified. The German market treats the survivor’s annuity as a
Zusatzversicherung — “Die Hinterbliebenenrenten-Zusatzversicherung ergänzt die als
Hauptversicherung abgeschlossene Rentenversicherung” [S9] — and the GDV publishes model conditions
for exactly that, for the immediate annuity as well as the deferred one [S1] [S9], so in the
reference implementation it is a separate module with its own insured life, off in the base run.
The template settles two mechanics the specification had left open. The rider pays at the main
annuity’s own Fälligkeitstage, “erstmals an dem Fälligkeitstag, der auf den Tod der versicherten
Person folgt”; and where a Rentengarantiezeit is running at the annuitant’s death, “zahlen wir die
Hinterbliebenenrente erst nach Ablauf der Rentengarantiezeit” — the two floors run in sequence,
not in parallel, which a model combining them must respect. Typical percentages are 60 % and
100 % unverified: the model conditions state no level at all, leaving it to the individual
contract, so the source is silent on the point rather than unread, and no carrier’s menu was
established. On the std basis at 1,00 %, annuitant 65 and second life 62 on
the same mortality, per 100 000 € std (14): 60 % gives a12 23.838 and 349,58 €, −14,3 %;
100 % gives a12 26.113 and 319,12 €, −21,8 %.
std, applying the same mortality to both lives and assuming independence — real joint-life pricing uses sex-distinct or portfolio-mix bases and a dependence allowance. The overview’s payout-plan exhaustion figures are on the same basis.
Payment frequency and timing#
The rule. The annuity is monthly as standard, with quarterly, half-yearly and annual
frequencies offered — read in four places: “jährlich, halbjährlich, vierteljährlich oder monatlich”
[S1] [S2], “ein Jahr, ein halbes Jahr, ein viertel Jahr oder einen Monat” [S6], and “wahlweise
monatlich, viertel-, halbjährlich oder jährlich” [S7]. The [unverified] tag on the non-monthly
options comes off. On timing the corpus now speaks, and it contradicts this model’s convention.
NÜRNBERGER: “Die erste Rente wird einen Monat nach dem vereinbarten Versicherungsbeginn gezahlt. Die
garantierte monatliche Rente wird an jedem Monatsersten gezahlt” [S4]. CosmosDirekt, for the
immediate form: the first instalment falls “ein Jahr, ein halbes Jahr, ein viertel Jahr oder einen
Monat nach dem vereinbarten Versicherungsbeginn” according to the frequency chosen [S6]. Both pay
in arrears. The GDV template pays “an den vereinbarten Fälligkeitstagen” and does not settle it
[S1]. What it does: timing fixes the grid of the whole model, a monthly-in-advance stream being
an annuity-due, and the two conventions differ by about 5 % of the annuity (footnote 8). The
model retains vorschüssig in this pass, now labelled as a std convention known to be the
minority one rather than as a gap; changing it moves the worked example and its golden tests and is a
decision to be taken deliberately. No loading for a non-monthly frequency was established.
Überschussbeteiligung in the Rentenbezug#
The rule. The annuity paid is garantierte Rente + Überschussrente. Only the first is a promise;
the second is declared annually out of surplus actually earned and can move down as well as up.
Participation is a statutory right, not a marketing feature: § 153 VVG entitles the policyholder
to a share of the Überschuss and of the Bewertungsreserven unless excluded by express agreement,
names the principle — a verursachungsorientiertes Verfahren — and does not prescribe the
algorithm, which is precisely why every level below is std REG-R24. It does not stop at
Rentenbeginn, and three carriers now say so at clause level. Zurich Deutscher Herold, in both the
immediate and the deferred pack: “An vorhandenen Bewertungsreserven werden Sie während der
Rentenzahlungszeit … beteiligt. Derzeit sieht § 153 Absatz 3 VVG eine hälftige Beteiligung an den
Bewertungsreserven vor” [S2] [S3] REG-R24. NÜRNBERGER credits the annual Bewertungsreserven
share “zur Erhöhung der bis dahin erreichten Rente, erstmals zum Ende des ersten Versicherungsjahres”
[S4]. And Bayern-Versicherung’s declaration allots them “zur Hälfte dem Vertrag”, measuring the
amount in payment “jeweils für den Monat vor dem Jahrestag der Versicherung” [S10]. One rule cuts the
other way and is specific to this product: at that carrier, “Rentenversicherungen mit sofort
beginnender Rentenzahlung erhalten keine Mindestbeteiligung” at the Bewertungsreserven, and no
Schlussüberschussbeteiligung either [S10].
The Überschussverwendung forms, elected at Rentenbeginn — here at inception, once, and irrevocably: “Ein Wechsel der Überschussverwendungsarten ist ausgeschlossen” [S4]. The consumer literature names three — konstant (also flexibel), teildynamisch, volldynamisch R19 R21 — and carriers name their own variants on top: Bonusrente, Bonus-PLUS-Rente and Garantie-PLUS-Rente at Zurich [S2], a dynamische Überschussrente and a teildynamische Bonusrente at NÜRNBERGER [S4], “Bonusrente oder Überschussrente” at Bayern-Versicherung [S10]:
Form |
Mechanic |
Payment stream |
|---|---|---|
konstante Überschussrente |
The insurer fixes the total annuity at Rentenbeginn from the garantierte Rente plus a surplus share projected for the whole annuity period, and intends to hold it level R21 |
Highest at outset; flat thereafter in intention only |
steigende (volldynamische) |
The annuity adjusts annually and flexibly to the actual surplus development R21 |
Lowest at outset; rises each year surplus is declared |
teildynamische |
Part of the expected surplus is applied under the constant system and part under the dynamic one, so the annuity rises by a fixed percentage provided the insurer earns corresponding surpluses R21 R23 |
Intermediate at outset; rises at a stated rate, subject to surplus |
Bonusrente (the crediting mechanic, not a fourth form) |
Declared surplus buys a paid-up increment of annuity, permanently added to the payment: “Die jeweils erreichte Rentenhöhe kann nicht mehr sinken” [S4] |
Ratchets: each increment, once bought, does not come off |
The Bonusrente is the mechanism underneath the rising forms, not a fourth alternative [S2] [S4]
[S10]: what makes a volldynamische Rente ratchet rather than fluctuate is that its increments
are bought as paid-up annuity — “Die jeweils erreichte Rentenhöhe kann nicht mehr sinken” [S4] — so a
model treats it as the crediting mechanism and the three dynamics as the profile. The single most
important thing to understand about this product: the constant form is not constant, and this is
now read rather than reported. Finanztip: “In der Praxis kann Deine Rente aber durchaus schwanken.
Denn wenn der Anbieter weniger verdient als erwartet, sinkt Deine Rente. Die Summe, die anfänglich
festgelegt wird, ist nicht garantiert. Daher ist der Begriff „konstante Rente” etwas irreführend.”
R21 CosmosDirekt, in the contract: “Falls wir in einem Jahr nicht ausreichend Überschüsse
erwirtschaften, kann die Zusatzrente reduziert werden” [S6]. Zurich, on its Garantie-PLUS-Rente:
“Verringert oder erhöht sich aber die der Berechnung zugrunde liegende Überschussbeteiligung …, so
ändert sich demgemäß auch die Höhe der Rente aus Überschuss” [S2]. And the reason it can be reduced is
structural: during the payout phase the funds reserved in the RfB support “eine lebenslang zahlbare
Rente, deren Höhe jedoch nicht garantiert ist. Die hieraus gezahlten Renten sind jeweils nur für ein
Versicherungsjahr zugesagt” [S2]. One source disagrees and is not followed: the GDV’s consumer
article asserts that under the flexible and teildynamic forms the annuity “nie unter das zu
Rentenbeginn erreichte Niveau fallen kann” R19, which the AVB above contradict; the contract
controls. Only
the garantierte Rente inside it is guaranteed, and the gap between the two — on typical market
designs of the order of 15 % to 25 % of the payment unverified — is the amount at risk. That
range stays unverified: none of the five retrieved insurer packs, and neither consumer source,
quantifies the gap between the guaranteed and the total annuity, which is why surplus_init_pct is a
std with no observed range. The trade-off across the forms is one of timing, not of amount: the constant form front-loads the
same expected surplus and carries reduction risk, the volldynamic form back-loads it and carries the
risk of dying before collecting. Franke und Bornberg titled its treatment “Die Qual der Wahl” R20.
One carrier’s payout-phase declaration is now read, and it changes what this section can say.
Bayern-Versicherung’s Überschussverteilung 2026 [S10] sets, for Einzel-Rentenversicherungen of
tariff generations 2015–2025, a Zinsüberschussanteil während des Rentenbezugs of “3,35 %
(2,5 %) abzüglich Rechnungszins” — 3,35 % for 2026 against 2,5 % for 2025, so 2,35 % over a
1,00 % tariff rate — against “3 % (2,25 %) abzüglich Rechnungszins” before Rentenbeginn. The
component split is stated outright: in payment the surplus is a “Zinsüberschussanteil in Prozent des
Deckungskapitals” and “Ein Risiko- oder Verwaltungskostenüberschussanteil wird nicht gewährt”.
Debeka reports the resulting increase actually granted on its own Sofortrente: “Im Jahr 2024
beträgt die Steigerung der Rente 0,75 Prozent” [S8]. Five carriers’ laufende Verzinsung for 2026,
from Assekurata via Finanztip, are Allianz 2,7 %, Alte Leipziger 2,4 %, AXA 3,0 %, Proxalto 2,7 % and
Nürnberger 2,95 % R21 R22. None of this is used to set the model’s surplus scale, which stays
std and uncalibrated (see technical-notes.md class (b)); what is gone is the claim that no
rate, no component split and no realised Rentenanpassung exists anywhere in the corpus (gap 4
narrows to: no spread, and no rate for the carriers this specification is otherwise built on).
The cross-product library’s accumulation-side average must be read carefully: the German declared
rate is the laufende Verzinsung, the Garantieverzinsung plus the laufende
Zinsüberschussbeteiligung, not a surplus rate on top of the guarantee — 2,53 % Klassik / 2,58 %
Neue Klassik for 2025, with three incompatible figures for 2026 REG-R53. Adding a declared rate to
a guaranteed rate is the commonest arithmetic error in describing a German contract.
Where the surplus comes from#
Three sources, unequally important for an annuity in payment. The Zinsüberschuss — actual investment return over the Rechnungszins on the Deckungsrückstellung — dominates, the reserve being large from day one and running off slowly over decades. The Risikoüberschuss is, for an annuity, a longevity result: positive when annuitants die faster than the first-order table assumed, negative when they live longer, and the one source that can go the wrong way for a whole cohort at once. The Kostenüberschuss is small. The statutory floor beneath the insurer’s discretion is the MindZV’s 90 / 90 / 50 and the RfB machinery above it, under Regulatory context.
The competition for the same money is first-order here. The Überschussrente is paid from the same Rückstellung für Beitragsrückerstattung that financed the Zinszusatzreserve (ZZR), the additional HGB reserve arising when the § 5 Abs. 3 DeckRV Referenzzins falls below a contract’s tariff rate REG-R17; the build-up suppressed declarations across the market for a decade and the release should work the other way. On trade-press figures — never a supervisory source — the ZZR stood at about 84 Mrd € at the 2024 balance-sheet date against a 96 Mrd € peak at end-2021, 2024 was the first year since introduction in which insurers had to add nothing at all, and about 5 Mrd € flowed back with a further 4 Mrd € for 2025, reaching policyholders through a higher Überschussbeteiligung REG-R17. That release profile is the largest single driver of what a German annuitant cohort will actually receive over the next decade, and a model projecting a flat surplus rate is ignoring it.
The Aufschubzeit variant#
The rule. The Einmalbeitrag is paid now and the annuity begins after a short deferment,
typically one to fifteen years. No carrier’s terms were established, and the corpus’s one candidate
is not one: the Mecklenburgische “Rente flex” reads in full as a Private Rentenversicherung mit
flexiblem Fondsanteil (Hybrid), a unit-linked deferred annuity that belongs to a different delib
product [S14]. What it does — three
things at once, which must not be conflated: interest accrues at the
Rechnungszins, so more capital is annuitised; mortality accrues, so survivors share the fund of
those who died — the survivorship credit that makes deferral powerful, and the reason the deferment
death benefit is a first-order design question; and the annuity starts at an older age, so a12 is
smaller for two reasons at once. Two death-benefit forms exist — a pure deferred annuity with no
death benefit, and a Beitragsrückgewähr form refunding the Einmalbeitrag on death before
Rentenbeginn, much the more common retail form — and neither was established for this product.
On the std basis at 1,00 %, age 65, 100 000 €, a five-year deferment raises the monthly annuity
from 407,98 € to 532,48 € without a deferment death benefit and 508,12 € with full
Beitragsrückgewähr — about +31 % and +25 %, the 4,6 % gap between them being the price of the
death benefit, widening to 11,1 % at ten years std (15: same basis, gross of charges).
No surrender, no lapse, no Beitragsfreistellung#
The rule and its consequences are set out under Termination and values; the positive statement a projection model needs is that the Sofortrente is the one German retail life product whose only decrement is death. Everything else a liability model would ordinarily carry — a Rückkaufswert table, a Stornoabzug, a five-year cost-spreading floor REG-R28, a Beitragsfreistellung conversion, a lapse rate, a dynamic surrender formula, a duration-12 tax threshold driving surrender behaviour REG-R45 — is absent by specification, and the consumer warning that follows is the first thing every German consumer page says: the Einmalbeitrag is irreversibly committed R21 R23.
Riders and options#
In scope, carried as model-point parameters and specified above: the Rentengarantiezeit as an annuity-certain floor; the Kapital-/Beitragsrückgewähr, solved implicitly and std mutually exclusive with the guarantee period and the survivor’s annuity; the Hinterbliebenenrente, off in the base run because the market treats it as a rider with its own condition set [S9]; the Aufschubzeit, its deferment death benefit taking the same refund form, off in the base run; the Überschussverwendung form, as an opening surplus percentage and an annual growth rate, both std; and payment frequency and timing, so that footnote 8’s unestablished convention can be switched and its 5 % effect measured rather than assumed away.
Out of scope, said rather than left to be discovered. Bewertungsreserven participation
continues throughout the payout phase and is a statutory entitlement [S3] REG-R24, but it is path-
and balance-sheet-dependent in a way a gross liability cash-flow model cannot reproduce, being
recomputed annually on the HGB accounts and reduced by the Sicherungsbedarf test of § 139 VAG and
MindZV §§ 11–13, whose fifteen-year window “bites hardest on annuity business” REG-R9 REG-R18;
the reference implementation models the declared Überschussrente explicitly and treats the
Bewertungsreserven share as an explicitly excluded component. Also out: a commuted settlement
of the Restgarantiezeit (gap 10); a Kapitalwahlrecht or partial commutation after Rentenbeginn,
of which there is none R1; indexed or inflation-linked annuities and impaired-life (enhanced)
annuities, neither established to exist in the German retail market; proof of life, whose failure
suspends payment until the certificate arrives; and the fondsgebundene Sofortrente, which belongs
to fondsgebundene_rentenversicherung.
Variations across insurers#
This specification still supports no numeric variation table, but the reason has narrowed. Retrieval reached five carriers’ condition sets and two carriers’ product pages, so the mechanics below are sourced per carrier; what no document supplies is a comparison — no two carriers’ quotations on the same case, no spread, no charge at any of them — and a table with a rate column per carrier would still be fabrication. Exactly one carrier’s rate scale exists in the corpus, Debeka’s tariff S1 at Stand 01.01.2025 [S8], and one carrier’s minimum ticket and maximum entry age, Allianz’s 3 000 € and 85 years [S7]. The research file names twenty-eight German life insurers as writers of the right kind of business — Allianz, R+V, Debeka, Generali and CosmosDirekt, NÜRNBERGER, Swiss Life, Zurich Deutscher Herold, ERGO, AXA, HDI, Alte Leipziger, LV 1871, Volkswohl Bund, Konzern Versicherungskammer and thirteen others [S13] — and for twenty-three of them naming the carrier still asserts only that it is a German life insurer of the right kind. The GDV does maintain Musterbedingungen for this product, and the earlier statement that it does not is withdrawn: its service index lists Allgemeine Bedingungen für die Rentenversicherung mit sofort beginnender Rentenzahlung (Stand 21.07.2025), a second set for the AltZertG version, and a Hinterbliebenenrenten-Zusatzversicherung rider set for the immediate annuity alongside the deferred one [S1] [S9] REG-R37. The market therefore has an association template of its own to draft from, and does not need to adapt the deferred one — which closes research gap 3 the other way round.
Carrier |
Document |
What it establishes for this product |
|---|---|---|
Zurich Deutscher Herold |
[S2] immediate annuity, Fassung 01/2025 (a Schicht-2 Direktversicherung pack); [S3] deferred, Fassung 01/2026 |
the Rechnungsgrundlagen — “Sterbetafel DAV 2004R (Aggregattafel)”, Rechnungszins 1,00 % — at both ends of the same carrier’s range; the no-termination clause; that the Überschussrente is “jeweils nur für ein Versicherungsjahr zugesagt”; Bewertungsreserven participation continuing in the payout phase, hälftig; and from [S3] the conversion of accumulated surplus on the bases in force for the annuity at Rentenbeginn |
NÜRNBERGER |
[S4] AVB |
payment in arrears from one month after inception; the company table NÜRNBERGER Tafel 2013 R at 1 % p. a.; the Rentengarantiezeit with a commutation option; the ratchet and the irrevocable election; the α-once/β-running charge structure; and “Eine sofort beginnende Rentenversicherung können Sie nicht kündigen” |
NÜRNBERGER |
[S5] AVB tariff NIR3301 |
the Rentengarantiezeit as a tariff-level feature carried in the product name, and — decisively — that the deferred contract converts on the bases of the carrier’s own Sofortrente tariff, naming NR3303 as the comparable one |
CosmosDirekt (Generali) |
[S6] AVB LA 904 A (01.17) |
the Kapitalrückgewähr measured on the guaranteed annuity; the Restgarantiezeit commutation alternative; the standard surplus disclaimer; that the constant form’s Zusatzrente can be reduced; a tariff Garantiesatz of 0,90 %, equal to its vintage’s cap; and payment in arrears for the immediate form |
Allianz |
[S7] KomfortDynamik page; PrivatSofortRente page |
the product name; Mindesteinmalbeitrag 3 000 €; Höchsteintrittsalter 85; the four payment frequencies. Neither page carries the two propositions previously attributed to this carrier |
Debeka |
[S8] B LV 85; Privatrente and Sofortrente pages |
the corpus’s only carrier rate scale — tariff S1, 50 000 €, 20-year guarantee, Stand 01.01.2025, 151 € a month at 65 — plus a realised Rentenanpassung of 0,75 % for 2024 and the Ertragsanteil at 18 % from the insurer’s own page |
GDV |
[S1] [S9] |
model conditions for exactly this product (Stand 21.07.2025) and a matching survivor’s-annuity rider set; the no-termination clause at template level; and the rider’s sequencing behind a running Rentengarantiezeit |
Konzern Versicherungskammer |
[S10] Überschussverteilung 2026 |
a payout-phase Zinsüberschussanteil of 3,35 % less the Rechnungszins for 2026, funded from interest surplus alone; and two rules specific to the Sofortrente — no Schlussüberschussbeteiligung, no Mindestbeteiligung at the Bewertungsreserven |
Feature |
Variants that exist |
Evidence |
|---|---|---|
Rentengarantiezeit |
5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30+ years, or none; typical 15 years to age 70 and 10 thereafter; most choose 10–20 |
envelope R23; tariff-level [S4] [S5]; optional in the template [S1]; priced as an option [S7] |
Settlement inside the guarantee period |
instalments continue by default, or the claimant may elect a lump sum — of the outstanding instalments [S4] or of the Deckungskapital [S6] |
[S4] [S6]; take-up not established |
Death benefit menu |
Rentengarantiezeit, Kapital-/Beitragsrückgewähr (Tarif R3T at one carrier), Hinterbliebenenrente, Sterbegeld capped at 8 000 € in the bAV form, or none |
[S2] [S6] [S7]; no carrier’s full menu established |
Survivor’s annuity |
a Zusatzversicherung with its own condition set, paid only after any Rentengarantiezeit expires; 60 % and 100 % are the standard levels unverified, the model conditions stating none |
[S1] [S9] |
Überschussverwendung in payout |
konstant (flexibel) / teildynamisch / volldynamisch, under carriers’ own names; the election is irrevocable |
|
Bewertungsreserven in payout |
continue, currently at equal participation; no Mindestbeteiligung and no Schlussüberschuss for this product at one carrier |
[S2] [S3] [S4] [S10]; REG-R24 |
Interest basis of the guarantee |
at or below the Höchstrechnungszins REG-R14; every retrieved tariff prices at its vintage’s cap — 1,00 % in 2025/2026, 0,90 % in 01/2017 |
[S2] [S3] [S4] [S6] REG-R15 |
Payment timing |
in arrears at both carriers whose AVB state it; the template does not settle it |
[S4] [S6]; [S1] |
Aufschubzeit |
0 years (pure Sofortrente) or a short deferment |
no carrier’s terms located; [S14] is a hybrid deferred annuity and is not a candidate |
Parameters whose range is unknown. The spread between the best and worst quotation — one carrier’s scale is now in the corpus [S8], no second; α and β, and with them Effektivkosten and Renditeminderung, none of which any retrieved document quantifies; the Einmalbeitrag and entry-age envelopes beyond one carrier’s 3 000 € and 85 years [S7]; surplus rates at the carriers this specification is otherwise built on, one group’s declaration having been read [S10] and one carrier’s realised increase [S8]; the split of new business between the Überschussverwendung forms; the take-up of Kapitalrückgewähr against Rentengarantiezeit, and of the lump-sum commutation inside the guarantee period; the Hinterbliebenenrente percentage menu; and the market’s size and average ticket. Every one is a gap, not an omission. A reader who needs to know how German carriers differ should start with a Produktinformationsblatt [S11], Stiftung Warentest’s periodic Sofortrente comparison R21 and the dedicated comparison portals R23 — in that order, and none of the three was located on 2026-08-30.
Regulatory context#
Contract law — the VVG. The contract is an ordinary Lebensversicherung under Kapitel 5, whose provisions are largely halbzwingend REG-R22. § 153 gives the statutory Überschussbeteiligung, names the principle — a verursachungsorientiertes Verfahren — without prescribing the algorithm, and requires the Bewertungsreserven to be recomputed annually and shared, currently hälftig, subject to the LVRG’s Sicherungsbedarf override REG-R24 REG-R20 [S3]. § 154 requires a Modellrechnung wherever the insurer quantifies benefits beyond the guaranteed ones — which a Produktinformationsblatt quoting a Gesamtrente does — at three rates fixed by § 2 Abs. 3 VVG-InfoV as the Höchstrechnungszins × 1,67, that rate ± one point, so at 1,00 % the statutory triple is 1,67 % / 2,67 % / 0,67 % REG-R25 REG-R15. § 155 requires an annual Standmitteilung disclosing the current claims including profit participation and how much of it is guaranteed, which makes a published specimen a legitimate primary source class and its absence here a real gap REG-R25 [S15]. §§ 165–170 — Beitragsfreistellung, termination, Rückkaufswert, Stornoabzug — do not operate once the Rentenbezug has begun REG-R28 R1 R2 R5; §§ 150 and 159–162 carry consent and the Bezugsberechtigung REG-R26; and the Widerrufsrecht is 30 days for life insurance REG-R23.
Tariff bases — the DeckRV and the DAV. § 2 DeckRV fixes the Höchstrechnungszins and, through
§ 138 Abs. 1 VAG’s requirement that premiums fund the reserve, caps the rate at which a new tariff
may be priced REG-R14 REG-R8. The rate applies at conclusion and stays with the contract for
its whole term — which is why the German book is a stack of cohorts and every delib model point
carries its cohort’s rate: 3,50 % to mid-1994; 4,00 % to mid-2000; 3,25 %; 2,75 %; 2,25 %; 1,75 %;
1,25 %; 0,90 %; 0,25 % for 2022–2024; 1,00 % from 2025, by the Sechste Verordnung zur Änderung
von Verordnungen nach dem VAG of 19 July 2024, BGBl. 2024 I Nr. 250 REG-R15. The ministry sets it
on an annual DAV recommendation — practice, not law — carrying a Sicherheitsabschlag of
40 % REG-R56. § 4 DeckRV’s Höchstzillmersatz of 25 ‰ does not reach this product, there
being no Beitragssumme REG-R16. No statute names a table: the gap between “prudent” and a
specific q_x is closed by the Verantwortlicher Aktuar under § 141 VAG REG-R56 REG-R11, so
a German biometric basis is soft law with hard consequences and DAV 2004 R is a benchmark, not a
mandate REG-R47 REG-R49. The unisex rule of C-236/09 and §§ 19, 20 and 33 AGG REG-R34 binds
the tariff from 21 December 2012 and is set out under Underwriting and rating.
Surplus, the RfB and the supervisor. The arithmetic floor under the insurer’s discretion is the MindZV: 90 % of the Kapitalanlageergebnis less the Rechnungszinsen — the guarantee funded first, only the excess shared — 90 % of the Risikoergebnis, raised from 75 % by the LVRG from 7 August 2014, and 50 % of the übrige Ergebnis REG-R18 REG-R20; the Direktgutschrift is deducted and a negative minimum replaced by zero, making it a minimum transfer to the RfB, not a minimum payout. Above it sit § 140 VAG’s ring fence REG-R10, the RfBV’s ceiling on the ungebundene part and its kollektiver Teil REG-R19, the § 139 VAG Sicherungsbedarf test REG-R9, and the § 138 Abs. 2 VAG equal-treatment rule the BGH tied to § 153 VVG in IV ZR 436/22 of 18 September 2024 REG-R8 REG-R36 — all computed on the HGB accounts REG-R54, with assets in the Sicherungsvermögen under § 124 VAG’s prudent-person principle rather than the AnlV quotas German market writing routinely misapplies REG-R7.
Disclosure and distribution. The VVG-InfoV prescribes the pre-contractual pack — the Verbraucherinformation / Vertragsinformationen / Allgemeine Informationen class [S2] [S3] [S14] — and carries the Effektivkosten disclosure REG-R31. PRIIPs generates the Basisinformationsblatt with its Risikoindikator, four performance scenarios and Renditeminderung REG-R32 [S12], but whether a payout-only Sofortrente falls inside PRIIPs scope was not established (gap 8): it reads as an insurance-based investment product, while its payout-only character and the absence of a surrender value make the holding-period and “what you might get back” sections awkward. If one exists it is the only public document giving this product’s cost in standardised form, and none was located. Distribution runs under the IDD as transposed on 20 July 2017 and § 34d GewO REG-R33.
Taxation. The whole cash flow is taxed under § 22 EStG on the Ertragsanteil and none of it under § 20 R13 R14 REG-R41 REG-R45: only the “Ertrag des Rentenrechts” is income, and the fraction is fixed once by the age at Rentenbeginn, “für die gesamte Dauer des Rentenbezugs” — 18 % at 65 and 22 % at 60, both now checked against the statutory table itself, which runs from 59 % at ages 0–1 to 1 % from age 97 R13 REG-R41. The schedule no longer carries unverified. Debeka states the same cell on its own product page: “Das sind zum Beispiel 18 % bei Rentenbeginn mit Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahrs” [S8]. On the constructed 389,99 € monthly annuity of footnote 10 the taxable amount is 70,20 €, so the tax is 17,55 €, 4,5 % of the annuity, at a 25 % marginal rate and 29,48 €, 7,6 %, at 42 % std. The § 20 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 Halbeinkünfteverfahren reaches only Rentenversicherungen mit Kapitalwahlrecht where the lifelong annuity is not taken, capital endowments with a savings element, and surrenders — none of which a Sofortrente can be R14 REG-R45 — and requires twelve contract years plus payment after a birthday which § 20 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 Satz 2 sets at the 60th and § 52 EStG raises to the 62nd for contracts concluded after 31 December 2011; the familiar “12/62” is the pair, not § 20 alone. The boundary is the product’s main quantitative selling point against a Bankauszahlplan taxed in full at the Abgeltungsteuer rate. A death benefit to a named beneficiary is an ordinary Erwerb von Todes wegen under § 3 Abs. 1 Nr. 4 ErbStG, and a Schicht-3 annuity is not a Versorgungsbezug under § 229 SGB V — though § 240 SGB V reverses that for freiwillig versicherte members REG-R46. One of the four open tax questions is now answered. Rentengarantiezeit payments to a beneficiary do keep the Ertragsanteil treatment: “Werden Leibrenten nach dem Tod der versicherten Person während einer Rentengarantiezeit weitergezahlt, unterliegen diese Renten weiterhin mit dem Ertragsanteil der Einkommensteuer” [S2]. Still not established: whether a Kapitalrückgewähr refund is taxable, whether a Hinterbliebenenrente is re-based on the survivor’s commencement age — § 22 Nr. 1 Satz 3 Buchst. a Doppelbuchst. bb Satz 5 refers annuities on another person’s life to § 55 EStDV, which was not read — and the Solidaritätszuschlag (gap 15).
Prudential and accounting — cited, never specified. BaFin supervises under Solvabilität II as
transposed into the VAG REG-R1 REG-R2 REG-R5 REG-R6, with Directive (EU) 2025/2 amending the
regime REG-R3 and EIOPA publishing the curves REG-R4. A German insurer values this book
twice: the HGB Deckungsrückstellung on the first-order bases, increased by the ZZR REG-R14
REG-R17 REG-R54, on which the whole surplus system operates; and the Solvency II best estimate at
the EIOPA curve plus a risk margin REG-R6. IFRS 17 is a third, group-reporting measure REG-R55.
delib computes none of them: the models publish gross best-estimate-style liability cash flows
per model point, income-positive and undiscounted, and the discounting, the margins, the
Deckungsrückstellung recursion, the ZZR, the RfB stock and the CSM belong to a layer above.