BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The corona crisis significantly slowed sales of new life insurance policies in the past year. The number of newly concluded contracts has fallen by more than twelve percent compared to 2019, said the Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV) on Wednesday in Berlin. This is one of the reasons why the total premium income of life insurers, pension funds and pension funds fell by 0.4 percent to almost 103 billion euros, after having risen by more than eleven percent in the previous year.
One reason is that the customers could have fewer consultation appointments due to the lockdown, it was said to justify. The insurers had already felt this in the second quarter. It has recently been reported from the industry that people still rarely conclude old-age provision contracts online. They wanted advice on this.
If you take all the lines together, however, the German insurers increased their premium income in the Corona year by 1.2 percent to a good 220 billion euros. Property and casualty insurance recorded a premium increase of 2.1 percent. The smallest area in terms of contributions – private health and long-term care insurance – even rose by 3.8 percent.
The industry had received a lot of criticism in the Corona crisis because it initially did not step in in the event of economic damage due to company closings. Many cases ended up in court. “We take this criticism very seriously,” said GDV President Wolfgang Weiler on Wednesday. “However, pandemics undermine the insurance principle and cannot be insured purely for private purposes,” he emphasized. In the meantime, this is also formulated more clearly in the conditions for insurance companies that step in in the event of business closures.
According to the GDV, around 900 million euros have now been paid in such cases. Most cases in court were in favor of the insurer, it said. The GDV brought a privately and state financed fund into play, which should step in in such cases in the long term. The political talks on this are still at the very beginning.
In the property and accident area, the companies had to shoulder less burdens. According to GDV, the services to customers have fallen by an estimated 2.5 percent to 52 billion euros. The insurance industry had to pay a lot of money for the cancellation of events and the closure of businesses. However, there have been fewer accidents in road traffic and in leisure time, explained the GDV. The number of break-ins and company bankruptcies has also decreased, due to the suspension of the obligation to file for insolvency
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