2008: Reform of the Insurance Contracts Act (Versicherungsvertragsgesetz - VVG), established in 1908; regulates the duties and rights between the policyholder and the insurer. The reform implements into national law the Directive 2002/92/EC on insurance mediation, amends consumer protection to achieve a better balance of interests between insurers and policyholders and modernises the life insurance regulatory regime. The Act does not apply to pension funds.

2004: Retirement Income Act (Alterseinkünftegesetz - AltEinkG); harmonises the taxation of retirement income of employees with and without civil servant status and introduces deferred taxation for all kinds of retirement income.

2002: Act on the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanzdienstleistungsaufsichtsgesetz - FinDAG); integrates several areas of financial supervision into a single institution (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht - BaFin) and regulates its operations, responsibilities and powers.

2001: Act on the reform of the social security pension scheme and the encouragement of funded old-age pension provision (Altersvermögensgesetz - AVmG); amends numerous regulations of the Occupational Pensions Act, introduces the possibility of establishing pension funds (Pensionsfonds), grants the right to employees to request salary deductions for complementary occupational pension plans and implements new taxation rules on retirement income.

1992: Insurance Supervision Act (Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz - VAG); regulates the establishment and operation of insurance companies, pension institutions and pension funds and implements (together with the Insurance Contracts Act) EU-Directive 2002/83/EC concerning life insurance (while pension institutions are excluded from the Third Life Insurance Directive, they are for prudential reasons and with respect to competition treated in the same way as life insurance companies) and the EU-Directive 2003/41/EC on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision (IORPs).

1974: Occupational Pensions Act (Gesetz zur Verbesserung der betrieblichen Altersversorgung - BetrAVG); allows five different methods of implementing complementary occupational pension plans; regulates all plans, including those established before 1974, vesting, benefit adjustments and preservation, portability and transferability.