The paper introduces the basic concept and functioning of long-term working-time accounts and discusses major trends, risks and opportunities with regard to life-course oriented working-time adjustments. It gives a detailed overview of the distribution and use of long-term working-time accounts in Germany. This overview is based on initial multivariate analyses of a representative company survey that was carried out in 2005. The main questions concern the individual options and opportunities offered by long-term working-time accounts and the characteristics of their distribution. We examine effects of firm size, sector, demand fluctuations, economic performance, personnel policy, industrial relations, and workforce composition. There is empirical evidence that the distribution and use of long-term working-time accounts is strongly influenced by company size and the presence of a works- or staff council in the company. Larger companies with works or staff councils have more frequently long-term working-time ac-counts and use them predominantly for early or progressive retirement options, even more when the share of male employees in the company is high. Yet, this form of utilization contradicts the idea of extended employment with working hours appropriate to the employee's life phase. Its consequence is an individualised form of financing early retirement. Smaller companies, in contrast, offer more often options for family leave or temporary part-time; they are also more likely to have a long-term working-time account when they have a high share of female employees. In this respect small- and medium-sized companies are a particularly interesting subject of future research and life-course policy.