“Trusted Brands: German Insurance Industry Struggles to Build Consumer Trust”

Brokering insurance contracts is a rather less highly regarded profession in Germany. For example, the German Civil Service Association (DBB) regularly has the reputation of professional groups in the population examined. “Insurance agents” are just as regularly included in this ranking among those professions that do not enjoy a very high reputation. Also in 2022 it was enough for insurance agents only for the last place. Just under every twelfth of Germans have a high or very high level of trust in their profession.

In general, the insurance industry has been struggling with a wide variety of prejudices for years: “Insurance companies only want my money” or “Insurance companies don’t pay anyway.” are among the classics. The latter obviously has to be wrong. Because if people didn’t trust that insurance companies would pay in the event of damage, they simply wouldn’t take out insurance.

However, in order to conclude an insurance contract, a minimum level of trust is required. The level of trust in German insurers was examined in a survey again this year. Readers Digest and market researcher Dialego once again carried out the “Trusted Brands” consumer survey. The most trustworthy brands in Germany are to be chosen. For the study, 4,000 consumers aged 18 and over were surveyed online in January and February 2023; it is representative. Product categories were available: from car manufacturers to banks to pharmaceutical companies. But also insurers.

Readers Digest and Dialego also asked, among other things, what the basic trust in individual sectors was like. And: The insurance industry does not do so well in this survey either. But: With the sectors “vitamins/minerals” (26 percent), “vegan/vegetarian products” (24 percent) and “weight loss” (ten percent), three business sectors were awarded (even) worse values. After all, 32 percent of those surveyed had a “high level of trust” in the insurance industry. Much of the information can can be viewed free of charge on the Readers Digest and Dialego websites.

In terms of brands, respondents were specifically asked which companies they trust the most – enough to recommend them to friends and family. Unlike other surveys, the study does not make any brand specifications. As a result, the number of respondents who were willing to name a brand in each category has fallen slightly. A total of 3,497 different brands across the 20 product categories. In the previous year there were 3,578 different brands. Nevertheless, the large number of different brands shows that consumers continue to place their trust in many established, but also new brands.

A total of 3,084 votes were cast for the insurers. Here, too, the respondents were asked to name one brand per product category that they considered to be particularly trustworthy. A total of 145 different companies were named among the insurers.

The top insurance companies include HUK24 (3.0 percent/10th place), VHV (2.6 percent/9th place) and provincial (2.4 percent/8th place). The top seven companies can be found in the photo gallery.