January 28, 2021 – The consumer protection association starts a new campaign. The focus is on the accusation that unit-linked life insurances were advertised with guarantees years ago, but that customers were confronted with guarantees being “canceled”. The association now wants to collect contracts and talk to insurers, and if necessary, take legal action.
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The Association for the protection of consumer interests (VSV) started a new collection campaign on Tuesday. It is about unit-linked life insurances that were sold to actually risk-averse customers in the 1990s until the financial crisis of 2008, according to the SAAM.
Unit-linked life insurances were advertised with a capital and / or maximum level guarantee, but in fact funds “weakened” as a result and some of them were discontinued in recent years.
Guarantees have been canceled for customers, and offers have been made to seek out other funds without a guarantee.
Contracts “void”
The association sees this as a one-sided change in benefits and believes that “the small print reference to this possibility in the insurance conditions is grossly disadvantageous and ineffective”. The contracts are “void”.
“If they had known about this possible course, the affected customers would never have chosen such supposedly safe products and often even used them as a repayment vehicle,” says the VSV.
He takes the position that the policyholders concerned can demand the paid premiums including four percent interest from the respective payment. At most, costs for a risk of death would have to be deducted.
The SAAM intends to subsequently negotiate with the insurers “and, in the event of a conflict, also enforce claims in court”.
“Assume hundreds of thousands of contracts”
How many policies and what amount is involved? “I am assuming hundreds of thousands of contracts,” says chairman Peter Kolba to the VersicherungsJournal. “Amounts around 100,000 euros and more” are possible for each contract.
“So far, we have already received 20 contracts today,” Kolba summarizes the status as of Tuesday.
Contracts are affected FWU Austria AG, the Generali Insurance AG, the HDI Lebensversicherung AG Austria, the Helvetia Insurance AG and the Zurich Insurance Company. We asked these companies for their comments.
FWU
FWU Austria refers to its Smart Dolphin tariff, which was discontinued in 2016. “In May 2017, we received notification that the guarantee funds to be secured by the external fund company would be liquidated and that no comparable successor funds would be offered. The decision was therefore beyond FWU’s sphere of influence. “
As a consequence, the guarantee components contained in the fund have also expired. “However, we were able to ensure that the maximum guaranteed value was implemented for all contracts assessed under this guarantee tariff.”
In order to take into account the original investment goals of the customers, the FWU launched a new investment fund. The new solution enables participation in the capital markets and at the same time offers a process-related capital guarantee.
“At the time, we presented the process very transparently for our customers and offered options for action. We are all the more pleased that very few customers decided against this solution at the time, ”says Richard Zarycka, Head of Customer and Sales Service.
Helvetia
From Helvetia it is said that it is “a matter of concern for the company to consider and examine every insured event individually”.
Meanwhile, Helvetia assesses the allegations made by the SAAM as “not very specific”, which is why it “cannot provide a generally valid answer to the facts” and “only partially”.
“However, we expressly believe that Helvetia has complied with the legal contractual conditions at all times.”
General
Generali reports that it has sold insurance policies with underlying guarantee fund concepts in the past; after a “stopping” had been announced for a product, “we already informed our customers very clearly and transparently about this in 2015 and agreed individual solutions with the customer”.
Generali has no further information about the VSV’s collection campaign, “so we cannot make any statements about it at the moment”.
The Generali adds that a stopping-out means that there is no longer any risk budget available in the fund due to capital market developments. “In this case, the fund is completely invested in safe investments and can no longer invest in the risky investment.”
HDI Life, Zurich
HDI Leben Austria replied that it would “check the matter internally” and that the company did not want to comment on the matter in more detail.
We had not received any feedback from Zurich by the editorial deadline.
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