Benefits of the VwdA

Security – The Architects’ Pension Fund (VwdA) is part of the first pillar of retirement income and is a fully funded pension scheme. The contributions paid in are annuitised in accordance with the principle of individual equivalence. This means that our participants enjoy a particularly high degree of security.

Above-average benefit payments – The VwdA annuitises contributions paid in since 1 January 2021 at an annuity rate of 2.5% (in accordance with § 30 of our Statutes). The payments made by the VwdA are also extremely attractive compared to those paid by private retirement pension products.

Comprehensive insurance – The VwdA also takes care of its members’ families. In addition to our retirement pension, we also provide a disability pension, a widow’s or widower’s pension and an orphan’s allowance for children who have lost one or both parents.

Flexibility to choose the contribution amount – Members can choose to increase their compulsory contribution of 18% of their annual professional income (employees: 18.6% of their income subject to social insurance contributions) in accordance with our Statutes and benefit from a higher pension entitlement. And conversely, during the first five years of self-employment, members can choose to halve their contributions (to 9%).

Exclusively for architects

Only members benefit, not third parties – We work exclusively for our participating architects. All our revenues go into their retirement pensions and additional benefits – without exception. We do not answer to any shareholders or other stakeholder groups.

Professionally organised – The VwdA provides retirement pension services to architects as a professional self-administered organisation. Its decision-making bodies are its Assembly of Representatives and Board of Directors. The members of the Assembly of Representatives are VwdA participants who are elected by fellow participants.

Knowledge of specific professional requirements – Architects need a flexible, tailored and secure retirement pension scheme. Our work aims to fulfil these requirements – and draws on experience dating back to 1970. We support our members with their personal life planning, including those who wish to retire early or late.

First pillar of retirement income

The Architects’ Pension Fund (VwdA) is part of the first pillar of retirement income. It is a funded pension scheme, which is financed through the process of forming coverage capital ( each insured person accumulates their pension entitlements for themselves).  This means that each member can view their personal pension amount at any time. By means of comparison, in a pay-as-you-go system, which is also known as an intergenerational agreement, the contributions made by working members are used to pay the pensions of current retirees.

Compulsory insurance and freedom of choice

The Architects’ Pension Fund (VwdA) is a semi-autonomous trust of the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects and a public-law entity with its own boards. The VwdA offers compulsory insurance to all self-employed members of the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects, the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Architects and Engineers and the Hamburg Chamber of Architects.

Employed Chamber members have a unique chance to choose whether, for the same rate of contribution, they would like to make themselves exempt from the requirement to take out compulsory insurance under the statutory pension insurance scheme and join the VwdA instead.

Specific professional requirements

The Architects’ Pension Fund (VwdA) caters exclusively for architects’ specific professional requirements. We support our members with their personal life planning, including those who wish to retire early. All participants can apply for an early retirement pension from the age of 62. A deduction of just 0.45% is charged per month in which the pension is drawn early. Conversely, the VwdA supports architects who wish to continue working and still earn enough to be subject to social insurance contributions after their 67th birthday by awarding them a 0.5% increment per month.

Since 1970

We have been working exclusively in the interests of our participating architects for decades.

32,000 architects

This is how many architects belong to the Pension Fund of the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects.

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