With a rapidly aging population and rising living costs, most public pension systems in Europe are under stress, and many observers fear that citizens across Europe increasingly will not have saved enough for retirement. Although the FinTech revolution has made private pension provisions and investment opportunities more accessible via neo-brokers and robo-advisors, a very important component of our pension system has been neglected: Company Pension Provisions (in German: Betriebliche Altersvorsorge). According to German law, every German employer is obligated to offer a company pension scheme to its employees and subsidize 15% of the costs. Yet only 32% of all employees in Germany utilize this offer.

Company HR departments, especially among Small- and Midsized Enterprises, often lack the expertise to effectively manage company pension plans and create efficient processes to offer legally compliant in-house solutions; thus they rely on external insurance brokers who offer a non-digital experience. Not only do SMEs lack the resources to create processes to adequately provide company pension plans, but employees are also not sufficiently informed about how the many company pension plans on the market can help them save for retirement.

That’s why we are excited about Degura.