Dr Marco Arteaga | Luther Lawfirm mbH

Dr Marco Arteaga deals with all matters relating to occupational pensions, including tax, commercial, accounting, insolvency, social security and insurance law and all related actuarial, business administration and personnel policy aspects, which may arise when introducing or designing occupational pension schemes. He further deals with all pension-related issues raised by the involved pension providers and the typical financing instruments, such as direct insurance, reinsurance and collective insurance policies, pension funds, municipal, state and church supplementary pension funds and contractual trust arrangements (CTAs).

Employment Law
State, Administration, Public Undertakings
Insurance Law

Dr Marco Arteaga studied business administration and law in Wiesbaden and Mainz (both Germany) and received his doctorate from the University of Cologne (Germany) for a thesis on a topic regarding insolvency insurance for shareholder-employees’ occupational pensions. He has several years of experience working in managerial functions in occupational pension consulting and in the life insurance industry and sits on various association committees. Furthermore, he has advised the German federal government on the Occupational Pension Strengthening Act (2017). Marco Arteaga has published extensively in the relevant fields of law, is a member of the German Occupational Pension Association (aba), the Scientific Board of the German Insurance Science and Design Association (GVG) and a member and spokesperson of "Eberbacher Kreis", an association of lawyers from large national and international law firms whose focus area is occupational pension schemes.

JUVE Guide 2023/2024: Award "Leading Advisor in Labour Law" and listed under "Frequently Recommended" in "Labour Law" (first listed in 2017/2018, "particularly experienced in occupational pension law")
JUVE Guide 2022/2023: Listed under "Frequently Recommended" in the sections "Design of Occupational Pensions" (first listed in 2017/2018)
The Legal 500 Germany 2024: Recommendation in the category "Commercial Administrative Law" and mention in the category "Labour Law" (first recommendation in 2022)
Who's Who Legal 2023: Recommendation "Global Leader" in "Labour Employment & Benefits - Pensions & Benefits" (first recommendation in 2022)
Best Lawyers 2024: Recommendations in the sections "Employee Benefits Law" and "Labor and Employment Law" (first recommendation in 2020)
Personalmagazin (2017): One of the “40 leading HR experts”

Advising on the reduction of pension provisions without encroaching upon acquired rights: extending the planned pension payments by granting payment-by-instalment options in the occupational pension scheme; immediate balance sheet relief through reduction of pension provisions
Advising on balance sheet relief in conjunction with an encroachment upon acquired rights as part of a restructuring: group-wide removal of future service from existing pension commitments; focus on the group’s financial position, immediate balance sheet relief on a large scale
Advising on an immediate increase in liquid funds by retransferring CTA funds: measure to retransfer trust funds from a contractual trust arrangement (CTA) to the sponsoring undertaking, releasing large amounts of liquid funds
Advising on a collective bargaining agreement replacing existing arrangements in order to reduce pension provisions: harmonisation of a large number of pension schemes within a group of companies and simultaneous reduction of future pension increases, making use of the increased encroachment rights granted to bargaining parties as compared to the German Federal Labour Court’s three-step theory for encroachments by works agreement
Advising on how to facilitate M&A transactions by spinning off company pension schemes: isolated or combined release of the sold business from pension obligations by means of a spin-off under transformation law or through co-debtor models in conjunction with external financing via a trust
Advising on how to relieve the voluntary insurance schemes handled by supplementary pension funds: transferring funds from the compulsory insurance business to the voluntary insurance schemes whose provisions are to be covered pursuant to the rules defined in the German Insurance Supervisory Act, thereby avoiding immediate special contributions
Advising on claims for damages against a former management board member: making the board member’s pension available as part of the assets involved in the damages negotiations
Advising on how to achieve a more favourable valuation of reinsured pension schemes in an M&A transaction: benefitting from the more advantageous rules for fully reinsured pension schemes in the context of an M&A transaction, in lieu of the standard valuation of reinsurance policies at “market value”
Advising on the “conversion of pension provisions into equity”: model project in cooperation with one of the “Big Four” audit firms aimed at immediately improving the balance sheet (higher equity) through an outsourcing transaction via a generally endowed pension fund with a view to recapitalising the company
Advising on an “alternative financing model for civil servants’ pensions”: drafting and negotiating an alternative financing model using a pension fund for a higher federal authority’s obligations
Advised the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in 2015/2016 in connection with the preparations for the “Occupational Pension Strengthening Act”, in particular with regard to the introduction of the “pure defined-contribution commitment” and the “option systems” designed to automatically include the entire workforce into the deferred compensation scheme

German Occupational Pension Association (aba)
German Insurance Science and Design Association (GVG)
Eberbacher Kreis