GERMANY – German doctors have asked financial services firm MLP to provide occupational pension advice.

The Heidelberg-based firm said it would advise 170,000 doctors with their own practices as well as 500,000 assistants.

The move follows that of the German General Practitioners' Association, who commissioned MLP last summer.

"We have found a professional partner in MLP, who has gained extensive knowledge of medical practitioners' individual requirements over the past decades and therefore will make a major contribution to a further success of our occupational pension schemes," said Peter Sauermann, chairman of the committee Pro bAV pension fund.

"This mandate is a major demonstration of the tariff partners' confidence in our newly formed OPS business division," said MLP chief executive Uwe Schroeder-Wildberg.

"Occupational pension schemes form an integral component of a well-conceived and sustainable pension provision concept. We are pleased to be able to develop these solutions for many medical professionals," says Schroeder-Wildberg.

The medical employers and employees agreed to form a pension fund for health professions in November 2002. The move was taken to make doctors “an attractive offer for occupational pension schemes” while considering receptionists’ rights to payment remuneration.

This health pension will also be run by MLP along side the Deutsche Ärztefinanz (German Doctors' Finance/Chemists' Finance Funds).

MLP today reported that pre-tax profits for 2004 rose 27% to €87.8m.

“We see high long-term growth potentials in the private as well as company pension sectors,” Schroeder-Wildberg said.

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