May 3, 2022 – The market standards defined by Infinma in disability insurance are (over) met by 16 tariffs offered in Germany by eight providers. The leading group includes Continentale, Credit Life, Dialog, Europa, Hannoversche, Metallrente, Volkswohl Bund and Zurich Deutscher Herold.
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Die Infinma Institute for Financial Market Analysis GmbH has re-examined which tariffs in disability (EU) insurance correspond to the market standard it has defined itself. The institute examined a total of 43 (2021: 50; 2020: 68) products from 16 (19; 23) companies that are offered on the German and Austrian market.
Of these, Infinma has certified 21 (32; 31) offerings from nine (13; twelve) stakeholders because they meet or exceed the standard in all 17 quality criteria of the institute.
These offers meet market standards
The list of certified products includes the following independent EU policies and additional tariffs (EUZ) that are available in Germany:
- Continentale Lebensversicherung AG“PEU”, “PEUS” as well as “PEUZB” and “PEUZR” (each as of 1/2022),
- Credit Life AG„YOUR“ (Stand 12,/2021),
- Dialog Life Insurance Company“SEU protect” and “EUZ” (each as of 10/2021),
- Europa Lebensversicherung AG“E-EU” and “E-SEU” (Stand 1/2022 respectively),
- Hannoversche Lebensversicherung AG: „SEU22“ (Stand 1/2022),
- Metallrente GmbH: “Metal disability protection Flex” and “Metal disability protection Flex care” (each as of 1/2022),
- Volkswohl Bund Lebensversicherung AG: “SEU”, “EUZ” and “EUZ DV” (each as of 1/2022),
- Zurich Deutscher Herold Lebensversicherung AG: Tariffs “Disability protection letter” and “Disability protection letter (DV)” (each as of 1/2022).
In all cases, with the exception of the newly launched Metallrente product, these are extended offers that have already received awards in recent years (VersicherungsJournal May 31, 2021, May 5, 2020, August 21, 2019).
No longer belong to the group of insurers with at least one excellent tariff Axa Life Insurance Ltd (also DBV German Civil Service Life Insurance, branch of Axa Life Insurance AG), die HDI Life Insurance Ltd and the Inter Life Insurance Ltd.
17 Quality Criteria for Disability Insurance
The market standard in the 17 criteria examined by the institute is determined by the totality of the analyzed tariffs. In doing so, no distinction was made between possibly different standards in Austria and Germany.
Compared to the previous year, the analysts have changed the criteria. The aspects “obligation to report when resuming gainful employment” and “time of benefit” have been dropped. For this purpose, the points “extension option” and “payment of a statutory disability pension as a benefit trigger in the EU” were newly included in the catalog of criteria.
|
criteria |
market standard* |
|---|---|
|
forecast period |
Probably at least six months |
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retrospective performance |
After six months, retroactive benefit |
|
Specification of employment |
All activities that are common on the general labor market and all self-employed activities |
|
scope of work |
Work volume of at least three hours a day |
|
EU due to need of care |
Achievement at three or four out of six care points |
|
reporting deadlines |
Waiver or no reference to a reporting obligation |
|
contribution deferral |
Interest-free deferral of contributions possible until the benefit decision, repayment in installments possible |
|
Temporary Acknowledgment |
A temporary acknowledgment is possible once in exceptional cases |
|
Coverage of costs for stays abroad |
Payment of travel and accommodation costs specified in the conditions |
|
scope |
The insurance cover applies worldwide and is not restricted |
|
Duties to cooperate Health |
The cessation of incapacity to work or an improvement in the state of health/reduction in incapacity to work must be reported immediately |
|
single payments |
No one-time payments |
|
Subsequent insurance without cause |
Post-insurance options without cause |
|
Bridging payment difficulties |
No deferral is offered in the event of payment difficulties |
|
BU exchange option |
No BU exchange option |
|
extension option |
No renewal option is offered |
|
Statutory EM pension counts as EU |
The statutory reduction in earning capacity is not an EU cause |
Further details on the 17 criteria as well as the distribution of the respective characteristics can be found with this link (PDF, 687 KB) can be downloaded.
Example scope of work
The key word scope of work, for example, conceals the question of when a person is deemed to be unable to work. Most insurers pay if the insured person “is unable to work for more than 3 hours a day”.
Infinma describes regulations that specify a “volume of work of at least two hours a day or less” or the expression “volume of work with a certain regularity” as worse than this market standard.
As more positive than the market standard, the analysts call “a work volume of at least three hours; Partial services for work between 3 and 6 hours”.
- (Image: Infinma)
Not to be understood as a rating
The institute does not want the award to be understood as a rating. Therefore, the service components of the insurance offers are not weighted or offset against each other.
The analysts only want to show whether the insurers’ regulations on the individual criteria are better or worse than the market standard. At Infinma, these are regulations that are used most frequently in the conditions under consideration.
“Especially with regard to ‘Best Advice’, we think it makes a lot of sense to measure the individual terms and conditions against what is currently customary on the market. It is of little help for the consultant and customer to know that a certain feature is unsatisfactory from the customer’s point of view if no better alternatives are available on the market.”
Statements on market development
The managing Infinma partner Dr. Jörg Schulz as follows: “The number of providers has fallen again compared to the previous year. This alone has resulted in some changes in market standards. However, regardless of this, there was also an improvement in the conditions in the case of the event-independent supplementary insurance option, which has now become the standard.”
Marc Glissmann, Schulz’s colleague, adds: “Since basic ability insurance is becoming more and more popular and widespread, the (quality) pressure on disability insurance is also increasing from this direction.”
Further studies on EU insurance
At the beginning of April the Tomorrow & Tomorrow Ltd presented the third edition of their rating on EU insurance. 29 products from 18 suppliers were scrutinized. 17 offers from 14 product providers received the highest rating of five stars (04/07/2022).
For the magazine Euro from the Finanzen Verlag GmbH has the Franke and Bornberg GmbH carried out a price and performance comparison for various model cases last fall (October 21, 2021).
Die Institute for provision and financial planning GmbH (IVFP) issued a rating for independent disability insurance last autumn. Eleven tariffs from eleven providers were examined (November 17, 2020).
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