Certificate of Life for Submission Abroad; Requesting a Certification

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

Individuals who receive a pension from a foreign pension or accident insurance provider or a foreign occupational pension fund are required by these entities to submit a life certificate.

For this purpose, the pension recipients in question are sent a form that must be completed, signed by hand, and returned with the official certification to the foreign pension or accident insurance provider or the foreign occupational pension fund. Municipalities issue this official certification.

Pension recipients must have their life certificate verified in person at the local municipality. Life certificates cannot be sent by mail. However, you may authorize a representative to do so on your behalf.

If, for example, you are unable to visit the relevant office for health reasons, send an informal request and include copies of the required documents. The certificate will then be mailed to you.

If you live in a country with which electronic data exchange takes place, you will not normally receive a request to submit a certificate of life.

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

• Identification card or passport
• If available: Form provided by the pension or workers' compensation insurance provider or the other requesting agency
• Upon request: additional documents, if applicable

• The certificate is free of charge if it is required for submission to pension or accident insurance providers in the member states of the European Union and Switzerland.
• If the certificate is intended as proof for other insurance purposes (e.g., a company pension), the following applies: The fee for certifying signatures on life certificates that are not required for submission to pension or accident insurance providers in the member states of the European Union, Switzerland, or non-EU countries with relevant social security agreements is specified in Section 1.I.1/1.2 of the Schedule of Fees (KVz) to the Cost Act (KG). It ranges from 5 to 60 € and is determined on a case-by-case basis according to the administrative effort involved (Art. 6, para. 2, sentence 1 KG). The actual fee amount in each individual case is determined by the municipalities themselves.