Doctors don't have a money problem.They have a time problem.

Three things matter first: occupational disability insurance (Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung) to protect your income, the right health insurance setup, and liability cover — professional (Berufshaftpflicht) and private (Privathaftpflicht). Everything else — savings plans, extra pension products — can wait until these foundations are right. We go through it step by step, in English.

You do not choose. Registering with the regional medical chamber (Ärztekammer) makes you a member of that chamber's pension scheme, the Versorgungswerk, by law. What you do have to arrange yourself is the other half: the exemption from the state pension scheme (Deutsche Rentenversicherung). Without it you pay into both systems at the same time. The scheme is tied to your chamber district, so moving to another federal state is a question in its own right — the schemes differ in contribution rules and in what they pay out.

You have three months from the day you take up the job to apply for exemption from the state pension scheme (§ 6 Abs. 4 SGB VI). The application runs through your Versorgungswerk, which confirms membership and forwards it. What matters is the date it arrives: within three months the exemption counts from your first day — after that, only from the day it arrives.

Miss it and your contributions keep flowing into the state scheme instead of the Versorgungswerk. On a typical Assistenzarzt salary that is several hundred euros a month. And it is not a one-off: the exemption applies to that specific job. Every new employer, every rotation to another hospital, every move into your own practice starts a new three-month clock. The calculator shows what a missed deadline adds up to.

It depends on your salary, family situation and long-term plans. PKV often offers better benefits for doctors, but switching back to GKV is difficult — so this decision needs care, especially if you might return to your home country one day. You can only choose at all once your regular annual salary passes the threshold, which is 77.400 € in 2026. As independent brokers we compare roughly 1,800 tariffs across the whole market and explain the consequences honestly before you sign anything.

The Versorgungswerk is the mandatory pension scheme for physicians — you pay into it instead of the state pension. It is a solid base, but usually not enough to keep your standard of living, and the rules for drawing benefits from abroad differ. We analyse your projection, show the gap that remains and how to close it flexibly. Note that entitlements build slowly at the start: below roughly five years of contributions most schemes grant no regular pension at all.

Occupational disability insurance pays a monthly pension if you can no longer work as a doctor — the single most important insurance for physicians, because your working power is your biggest asset. Doctor-specific clauses matter: the waiver of abstract referral (Verzicht auf abstrakte Verweisung) and an infection clause for surgical and dental specialties. Your Versorgungswerk is not a substitute: most statutes pay only once you have given up every medical activity. The younger and healthier you apply, the better your lifelong conditions.

It covers you on duty, and that is where it ends. At a roadside accident, on a plane, or helping a neighbour you are acting as a doctor — and there you are usually uninsured. The same gap opens with locum shifts, second opinions or any work outside your employment contract; professional liability cover for those situations costs comparatively little.

Separately, private liability insurance (Privathaftpflicht) is one of the cheapest policies in Germany and is treated here as basic equipment. Many arriving doctors have simply never been told it exists.

Coming from outside the EU, full recognition often takes one to two years, and many doctors work on a temporary permit (Berufserlaubnis) in the meantime. That in-between period is where decisions about bank accounts, insurance and long-term contracts get made in a hurry — and some of them are difficult to correct later.

The rule of thumb: settle what protects your income and your health status now — both depend on your age and your medical history, and both only get more expensive. Postpone anything that ties you down for decades until your status and your plans are clear.

Yes. Consultations are available in English — in person in Mannheim, by video or by phone. Contracts in Germany are written in German, but we explain every clause before you sign anything, and you get direct WhatsApp access for quick questions from the ward.

Yes. We plan around your family transfers and start with flexible amounts that you can pause or adjust at any time — no rigid commitments you might regret. Your portfolio stays accessible if your plans change. Sending money home and building something here are both legitimate; they only conflict when the split happens by accident at the end of the month instead of by plan at the start.

This is exactly why flexibility matters when choosing products. Some contracts can be continued from abroad, some can be paused, and some should be avoided entirely if a return is likely. We build your setup so that both paths — staying or returning — remain open.

Online in about 10 minutes, completely paperless, including identity verification. The custody account is held at FFB (FIL Fondsbank, Fidelity Group). You get a curated portfolio matched to your risk profile — rebalancing included, with personal support from ärzte invest. Please note that the account opening process itself runs in German; we go through it with you.

The initial consultation and ongoing advice are free of charge for you. For the portfolio an open fee model applies: 0 € front-end load (100 % discounted), a service fee of 1 % p.a. on assets under care, plus the custodian bank's fee (FFB: 0.25 % p.a., min. €25, max. €45 per year). Insurance brokerage is paid by the insurers through commissions included in the premium.

Yes. Tamer Citirgi is registered with the IHK Rhein-Neckar as financial investment broker (§ 34f GewO, D-F-153-U6X9-64), mortgage credit broker (§ 34i GewO, D-W-153-BGJW-84) and insurance broker (§ 34d GewO, D-XWJ7-VQIEZ-20). Verify all licences in the public register at vermittlerregister.info.

It depends entirely on where you go — and on how long you stayed. Below roughly five years of contributions, most schemes grant no regular pension at all. You can then apply for a refund, but read the fine print: many schemes refund only your own share, not your employer’s, without interest, and every claim is extinguished for good. It is a decision you make once.

Where you move to matters just as much. Within the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, Regulation 883/2004 coordinates the professional pension schemes: periods completed in different member states are added together for qualifying periods. For most other countries the bilateral social security agreements cover only the state pension scheme, not the physicians’ schemes. Note that the United Kingdom has been a third country since 2021, and with the UAE or Saudi Arabia there is no agreement at all. Check this before you sign a contract abroad, not after.

Only if you are reasonably certain you will stay for at least ten years. German tax law applies a ten-year speculation period (§ 23 EStG) to private property: sell earlier and the gain becomes taxable. A property therefore locks in a decision you may not be ready to make.

A securities account has no such lock-in — it can be held, paused or liquidated from anywhere, and it does not care which country you live in. As long as the question „stay or return“ is genuinely open, flexibility is not a precaution. It is the strategy.

Without preparation, everything you built up is gone. Cancel a private policy and you lose your ageing provisions and the health status you were accepted with; on your return you start again, with a new medical assessment at the age you then are.

There is a simple instrument for this that very few people know: an Anwartschaftsversicherung (expectancy insurance). For a small monthly amount it keeps your contract dormant and preserves both your ageing provisions and today’s health status. It has to be arranged before you leave — it cannot be bought retroactively.

That is decided by the double taxation agreement between Germany and your country of residence — not by where you earned the money. Germany has secured taxation rights for social security pensions in most of its newer treaties, and non-residents can be subject to limited tax liability in Germany under § 49 EStG.

The practical consequence is that your net pension can differ substantially depending on where you retire. That is worth calculating years before you decide, because some of the levers — how retirement capital is held and drawn — have to be set long in advance.