There has recently been broad press coverage claiming that Riester pensions are not worthwhile for low earners as the likely pension entitlement for this group would anyway be below the state-guaranteed basic security benefit. A new report by Allianz Dresdner Economic Research now shows that the number of contribution years needed to qualify for a pension in line with the basic security benefit level (minimum contribution period) can be significantly reduced by taking out a Riester pension in addition to the statutory pension.

Based on a series of model calculations, the economists of Allianz Dresdner Economic Research have forecast the development of the nursing care sector until 2050 and – taking for the first time the nursing care reform 2008 into consideration – have estimated the contribution rate development of the social nursing insurance scheme and its sustainability gap and have made a detailed calculation of the reform proposals. The only way that funding of the nursing insurance scheme can be guaranteed is if a transition is made to a funded system. We have developed such a reform model and quantified the change-over costs, and have also illustrated the possibilities of dividing up the costs.

Total private financial assets probably reached EUR 4.53 trillion at theend of 2006, some EUR 240bn more than at the end of 2005. Investment decisions in 2006 were again tinged with caution.

It is estimated that by the end of 2005 households’ holdings of financial assets had swelled to EUR 4.32 trillion. The positive stock market trend played a large part in the more than 6 % increase.

In Deutschland beanspruchen Krankenhäuser von den Gesundheitsausgaben der gesetzlichen Krankenkassen den mit Abstand größten Anteil in Höhe von 35 %. Mit Blick auf die künftig noch zunehmende Kapitalintensität von Krankenhausleistungen ist es dringend geboten, für gesetzliche Rahmenbedingungen zu sorgen, die den Krankenhäusern Anreize für effizienteres Wirtschaften bieten.

At EUR 220,000 per head, today's retirement provision picture in Europe is somewhat better than in the USA where average pension assets and claims on the statutory pension system add up to EUR 200,000.