A life certificate confirms that the pension recipient is registered in Bavaria and is still alive. It is often required for pension or occupational pension claims from abroad.

Persons who receive a pension from a foreign pension or accident insurance institution or a foreign company pension fund are requested by them to submit a life certificate.

The pension recipients concerned are sent a form for this purpose, which must be completed, signed by hand and returned to the foreign pension or accident insurance institution or foreign occupational pension fund together with the official confirmation. This official confirmation is issued by the municipalities.

Pension recipients must have the life certificate confirmed in person at the municipality. Life certificates cannot be sent by post. However, you can authorize an authorized person to do so.

If you are unable to visit the relevant office, e.g. for health reasons, send an informal application and enclose a copy of the required documents. The certificate will then be sent to you.

If you live in a country with which an electronic data comparison is carried out, you will not regularly receive a request to submit a life certificate.

These are the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

• Identity card or passport
• if available: Form from the pension or accident insurance institution or other requesting body
• On request: further documents if necessary

• The certificate is free of charge if it is required for submission to pension or accident insurance institutions in the member states of the European Union and Switzerland.
• If the certificate serves as proof for other insurances (e.g. company pension), the following applies: The fee amount for the certification of signatures on life certificates that are not required for submission to pension or accident insurance institutions of the member states of the European Union as well as Switzerland or non-EU countries with a relevant social security agreement is set out in Section 1.I.1/1.2 of the Schedule of Costs (KVz) to the Costs Act (KG). It amounts to €5 to €60 and is calculated on a case-by-case basis according to the administrative costs (Art. 6 para. 2 sentence 1 KG). The actual amount of the fee in individual cases is determined by the municipalities themselves.