The personal pension system in Germany was established earlier and operated for a long time.This system effectively promoted the establishment of a multi-level pension security system in Germany and alleviated the payment pressure of public pensions.However,in the more than 20 years of development,the personal pension system in Germany has shown characteristics of rapid development in the early stage and weak development in the later stage,with less than expected reform results.The reason for this is closely related to the economic structure and institutional design of Germany.Although the German government has provided high financial subsidies to promote the development of the personal pension system,the low investment return rate seriously affects the social recognition of the personal pension system.This article focuses on the operational difficulties of the German personal pension system.By analyzing the reform process,institutional design and operational performance of individual pension over the past 20 years,the main challenges faced by Germany's individual pension system are summarized.At the same time,this article proposes a series of reform thoughts and suggestions on how to solve the problem based on the char-acteristics of Germany's economy and system.