Grenzen der Auskunfts- und Belegpflicht in der D&O Versicherung

A large number of claims brought under German D&O insurance regard Insured vs. Insured cases, i.e. claims brought by the company against its own directors and officers (Executive Directors, Supervisory Board Members etc.). After notification of and examination by the insurer of such an insured event, the insurer will in most cases opt to grant the insured defence cover in order to fight off the claim. The insurer hereby expresses that it regards the claim of the company (= its own policyholder) against the board member (= the insured) to be without merit. This situation—where the policyholder is at the same time the damaged party—though typical under (German) D&O-policies is uncommon for liability insurance cover in general. It, thus, raises the issue as to the limits of the policyholder’s duty to disclose information. The scope of said obligation is not unlimited. It rather has to be ascertained pursuant to Sect. 31 VVG (German Insurance Contract Act), by taking into account the policyholder’s interests in commercial and industrial confidentiality and the burden of poof as provided by Sect. 93 para. 2 AktG (German Stock Companies Act). In case legal proceedings ensue between the company and the insured, and, as a consequence, the insurer exercises its obligation to conduct the case for the insured or the insurer joins the lawsuit on the side of the insured (by declaring a Third Party Notice [Streiverkündung]), the insurer clearly becomes an adversary to the company. Under such circumstances, the company is irrevocably released from its duty to disclose information.     

Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der mathematischen Schadenmodellierung

Mathematical claims modelling is a traditional art of actuarial practice. However, changing expectations concerning the complexity and efficiency of mathematical models have lead to numerous developments in the recent years, particularly in the area of multivariate models. This goes hand in hand with questions about what is ?possible“ and what is ?meaningful“. Due to sophisticated improvements of the classical models, the one-dimensional situation is well-tractable today whenever sufficient data material is available. A more difficult task is the modelling of situations where data are sparse or, alternatively, highly complex. Here sometimes theoretical arguments have to be used for justification, as in the area of large claims or extreme values. A more modern approach to multivariate situations is via copulas which allow for a separation of the problem of marginal distributions and the joint dependence structure. However, so far there is little experience with such tools in the insurance world, which makes further scientific research necessary.     

Grund und Grenzen der vorvertraglichen Aufklärungspflicht des Versicherers

Zeitschrift für die gesamte Versicherungswissenschaft - Der Beitrag widmet sich der in Deutschland gängigen Praxis des Versicherungsvertriebs durch Versicherungsagenten. Gefragt wird nach...     

Das Transparenzgebot im Hinblick auf die Überschussermittlung und -beteiligung in der Lebensversicherung

The article deals with the legal requirements of transparency as they apply to general terms and conditions in life insurance policies. The analysis focuses especially on the principles formulated recently by the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) concerning contract clauses in life insurance policies that affect the calculation and the share of generated surplus funds. The recent jurisprudence of the Federal Court of Justice raises some basic questions of legal obligations of insurers to keep their general terms and conditions plain and understandable. Of particular concern is the relationship between the precept of transparency and statutory duties of insurers to furnish information to their customers. The conclusion is drawn that it is the exclusive role of the latter to oblige insurers to inform the customers about their objective legal position. The precept of transparency, however, does not create a legal duty to inform which is independent from the individual insurance contract. Further conclusions relate to the general reach of duties to inform, their application vis-à-vis the calculation and the share of surplus funds, the legal consequences that exist in case of their breach and the implications this may have on the reform process of the German Insurance Contract Act (WG). The article ends with the presentation of ten theses recalling briefly the considerations made in the course of the article.     

Folgerungen einer Rationierung in der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung für die private Krankenversicherung und ökonomische Grenzen für die private Krankenversicherung

The compulsory health insurance fund in Germany is under huge cost pressure. The reasons are the demographic development and the proceeding medical-technical progress, which keep raising the expenses instead of reducing them. Seeing that financial means are getting scarce, there are multifaceted appendages of rationing the medical supply. New market potential arises, however, for the economy of private health insurance for which one can develop and offer answers. The contribution scetches which economic boarders the private health insurance needs to adhere to.     

Kundenbindung in der Versicherungswirtschaft: Ergebnisse einer theoretischen und empirischen Analyse

In this article customer retention is analysed both theoretically and empirically, especially the retention of customer to insurance intermediaries. After the construct of customer retention has been conceptualised, the determinants of customer retention in the insurance business are derived. The empirical analysis is based on interviews of German customers of an internationaly operating financial services company. A total of 1,003 interviews were conducted. The analysis of customer retention through the usage of structural equation modelling forms the main part of this article. A comparison of three methods — structural equation modelling, neural networks and decision trees — shows that they are complementary and a combined application of these methods brings additional insights. On the basis of the determinants of customer retention, a typology of customers is built through hierarchical cluster analysis. The management of customer retention can be realised either by manipulating the determinants of customer retention or by ad dressing the identified customer types with a segment specific marketing mix.