Author
Ruven Simon
Head of Occupational Pension Sales (bAV) and authorised signatory (Prokurist), WWK Lebensversicherung a. G.
Ruven Simon runs bAV sales (betriebliche Altersversorgung, Germany's occupational pension system) at WWK Lebensversicherung, where he is also an authorised signatory. He has known the field since 2004 from administration, broker support and sales leadership, and explains for Vorsorgedepot-Lotse how the Altersvorsorgedepot (the new state-subsidised retirement investment account) sits alongside an occupational pension.
About Ruven Simon
Ruven Simon's career is unusually straight. He started his training at WWK's head office in Munich in 2004 and has stayed with the company ever since. In 2007 he moved into partner sales, looking after brokers, latterly as regional director for the Bavaria sales region. On 1 May 2021 he took over the bAV partner sales division; since January 2023 he has run bAV sales as a whole, as an authorised signatory.
His field is the second pillar of German retirement provision: Direktversicherung (an occupational pension run through a life insurance contract), Entgeltumwandlung (salary sacrifice into an occupational pension), the employer's contribution, and the company's written pension rules. Day to day, the work has less to do with the product calculation than with what comes after it. Is the scheme set up cleanly? Do the employer and the employee still understand what they signed ten years on? His public position is that bAV does not hinge on new contracts but on looking after the existing ones.
For Vorsorgedepot-Lotse he covers exactly that seam. The Altersvorsorgedepot is private, state-subsidised provision; alongside it, many employees have an occupational pension or could have one. Which comes first when the money only stretches to one? What happens to the statutory pension and health insurance when someone saves out of gross pay rather than net? And when is Entgeltumwandlung the worse route?
Career
- since 2023Head of Occupational Pension Sales (bAV), authorised signatoryWWK Lebensversicherung a. G., Munich
- 2021–2022Head of bAV Partner SalesWWK Lebensversicherung a. G., Munich
- 2007–2021Broker support, latterly regional director for the Bavaria sales regionWWK Lebensversicherung a. G.
- 2004–2007Vocational training at the head officeWWK Lebensversicherung a. G., Munich
What Ruven Simon writes about here
On Vorsorgedepot-Lotse, Ruven covers the occupational side: how the Altersvorsorgedepot relates to Entgeltumwandlung, to a Direktversicherung and to the employer's contribution, what employees with an existing occupational pension need to watch for with the Altersvorsorgedepot, and where the social-security saving reverses in the payout phase. Every subsidy, tax and legal figure is sourced; the decision stays with the reader.
Why Ruven Simon is a trustworthy author
Ruven Simon is credible on occupational pensions because he has known them since 2004 from inside a pension provider: first in administration, then in broker support, today in sales leadership. His career is publicly documented in press releases and trade interviews. What stays transparent: he works in sales at a life insurer that offers bAV products itself, and does not act as an independent adviser or as a neutral provider comparison. His pieces explain the mechanics of the second pillar; they carry no product recommendation.