Peppermintia: They came to us to express their anger at the distorted public portrayal of the insurance broker profession. What happened?
Janken Christiane Krauße: We were invited to an interview by the “Ruhr Nachrichten” – and we are completely appalled by the image of the insurance broker that seems to prevail, especially at the consumer advice center.
Can you explain that in more detail?
In the current Contribution of the “Ruhr Nachrichten” (subject to a fee) It’s about insurance for children. A representative of the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center also comments on this – and there all accident insurance products are denied the sense. The sense of protecting children is completely questioned in the article and the quality of advice (from brokers, editor’s note) is attached to the colors of a homepage (“Assekurini’s website looks idyllic (…) Everything is in a rich purple held, “it says in the text, editor’s note). I cannot put into words how appalled I am.
This current example is likely to make many parents, who are already insecure, even more puzzled as to whether early private security for their offspring is important at all. Why is she so important?
In my full-time job as an educator and social worker, I have met so many children and young people and accompanied them on part of their journey. Unfortunately, I also experienced how often accidents, illnesses or diagnoses can affect the child for life, even in childhood. This early protection is therefore particularly important to me.
What objections do you often hear from parents in counseling sessions?
Objections are, for example, what could happen to a student at all, which is not covered by the statutory accident insurance. Or statements such as “It’s enough if we insure our child when they start training or work”. In many minds, the possibility and also the importance of early protection has not yet arrived.
Are there also positive aha experiences that arise with your customers in the course of the consultation?
I would describe the corona pandemic as an aha effect, for example, and the resulting awareness of the mental health of the students. Not even the direct benefit case, but also the fact that a diagnosis in childhood means that they can no longer take out occupational disability insurance (BU) makes the parents think. In many cases, the child’s career aspirations can also be included in the counseling as an icebreaker and serve as an argument.
And parents in particular who have taken out disability insurance for themselves are particularly open to the topic. Of course, experience with your own health check or events from the environment where people unfortunately could not be insured due to previous illnesses play a role in the decision. But the main argument in our advice on student BI, in addition to the important current protection, is of course that there will be no future risk assessment and you can buy very good BI protection as a child thanks to the dynamics and options for increasing it. The comparatively low amount of the contribution is also a very good argument due to the young entry age.
“Accident insurance, disability insurance for students or dread disease insurance provide comprehensive protection,” says Assekurini’s website. How do you rate the range of occupational disability insurance available on the market for schoolchildren in particular – a segment that seems to have been moving a lot lately?
Yes, exactly, a lot has actually happened on the market and things are going in the right direction. From my point of view, however, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Unfortunately, disability insurance for elementary school students has so far hardly been offered. In addition, the students are heavily classified, which may make sense from an actuarial point of view, but gives me a bit of a stomach ache as a person and especially as a mother.
What would you like to see from insurers in the future in order to make the worker insurance offer for children and schoolchildren even better?
I wish that primary school students would be given more focus and that perhaps one or the other company would launch a corresponding product. But what is most important to me in relation to the industry is the maximum amount of the insurable BU pension. This is actually far too low to really be secured. Here we still have to offer complementary products to enable the holistic protection we advertise.
