Price war for the new retirement savings account: providers undercut legal cost limits

Banks, fund companies and neobrokers are positioning themselves for the new retirement savings account. Some offers are said to cost only a fraction of what would be legally permitted. Competition pays off for investors.

With the new retirement provision portfolio (AVD), investors will benefit from an unprecedented price war. Deka, the savings banks' fund service provider, will offer a standard product at a price of 0.1 percent of the portfolio value per year.

Of every 1,000 euros, only 1 euro goes to Deka each year for depot and allowance management as well as product costs. “We are positioned very cheaply and competitively,” emphasized Deka sales manager Dirk Peters at the launch. However, in order to use the offer, investors must be or become a customer of a savings bank. The savings bank camp is thus putting pressure on neobrokers as well as established branch and digital banks.

The neobroker Scalable Capital opened the price war with a free depot. However, costs of up to 0.15 percent should be incurred for the funds used. Smartbroker also wants to offer a free portfolio and will reimburse the costs of the ETFs included for three years. If you want to secure the discount permanently, you have to trade a security at least 15 times a year. The provider Trade Republic did not want to provide any conditions upon request.

The law that has already come into force for the new retirement savings account, which can be set up from the turn of the year and will reorganize the state-funded private pension provision, caps the costs for the standard product at one percent. The industry is apparently using the Riester savings reform to attract new customers - and later wants to lure them into higher-margin products such as funds, derivatives or crypto assets.

Union Investment, the fund provider for the cooperative banks, also promises a favorable offer. According to its own statements, the largest Riester provider wants to stay well below the legal cost cap for the standard “Uni-Vorsorge Basis” depot. Established direct banks such as ING, Comdirect and DKB have not yet announced any conditions.

The same applies to branch banks such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. In addition to the standard product, which will consist of two ETFs, Deka will offer an actively managed "individual product" made up of three funds - at a cost of one to 1.5 percent.