The psychological effects on tariff choices for car insurance

Insurance customers increasingly choose between conventional flat-rate car insurance tariffs and innovative usage-based car insurance tariffs such as a pay-per-mile tariff. Usage-based car insurance tariffs require traffic telematics. In this paper, we analyze the decision-making behavior of insurance customers concerning tariff choices as well as the psychological effects. In other service areas, it can be observed that customers often prefer a flat-rate tariff even if their billing rate would be lower on a pay-per-use tariff for a given amount of usage. In study?1, we show that the purchase intention of car insurance tariffs is influenced by psychological effects as well as the customer’s personal experience with the insurance provider and that it is higher for a flat-rate car insurance tariff compared to a pay-per-mile tariff. Customers who have had positive experiences with an insurance provider induce a higher purchase intention for car insurance than customers who have had no experience with an insurance provider. In study?2, we show that the probability of choosing a flat-rate car insurance tariff is higher with increasing monthly kilometers.     

Vierfelder-Matrix der Markenpositionierung von gesetzlichen Krankenkassen

The branding in statutory health insurance is used for the delimitation of a legally regulated and quite homogeneous market. This paper presents a marketing concept as four-field matrix, which works out the essential determinants and severity factors. Health is here considered either emotional or rational concept. The health insurance company is regarded in this context as a saver versus supporter. The shaping factors are systematized in a four-field matrix for brand positioning (increasing the performance, motivation to comprehensive health, strengthen the capabilities, and preservation of the performance). Afterwards the concept is presented for the example of selected health insurance and critically discussed. In summary, the brands of individual health insurance can be useful classified and separated according to the present concept.     

Die Versicherungsnachfrage von Unternehmen: Eine Empirische Untersuchung der Sachversicherungsnachfrage deutscher Unternehmen

This article presents the results of an empirical analysis regarding the corporate demand for insurance. As several studies before tested the theoretical arguments for the corporate motivation to purchase insurance, this article provides the fist empirical analysis focussing on the insurance demand of German corporations. The empirical evidence, found in the data of corporate clients of a German insurance company, supports the hypotheses regarding the relation between the demand for insurance and the size of the corporation, insolvency costs and real services of the insurer as well as the influence of the ownership structure of a stock corporation. Conflicting results were found regarding regulation.     

Vertragsrechtliche Anforderungen an die Gestaltung von „Self-Tracking“-Tarifen in der Privatversicherung

The phenomenon of digitalization is reaching into our everyday lives, and “self-tracking” practices gain new adherents. Yet “self-tracking”, the practice of systematically recording information about one’s health and lifestyle by digital means, is not only an opportunity for the self-tracker to enhance his self-knowledge, but also for insurers to detail and personalize their risk assessment. The following article deals with “self-tracking”-insurance contracts, i.?e. insurance contracts that adapt to the personal risk data of the insured person and offer discounts for risk-aware policyholders. In these contracts, self-tracking data will either be used as a basis for premium calculation or as an element to calculate the bonuses payable as profit participation on with-profit policies. The article focuses on the control of standard terms of “self-tracking”-insurance contracts, but also covers the legal prerequisites under which the insurance contract may be combined with a separate self-tracking-contract between the self-tracker and a third party.     

Garantieversprechen für Gebrauchsgüter als erlaubnispflichtige Versicherungsgeschäfte aus deutscher und europäischer Sicht

The article deals with the conditions under which the provider of guarantees for consumer goods operates an insurance business and therefore needs a permit. This question is of fundamental academic importance as it concerns the limits of insurance. Secondly, it is of practical relevance, as is reflected in court decisions in Germany as well as in other European countries. A comparative analysis supports the following rules: An extension of the statutory warranty offered by the seller or manufacturer is normally to be regarded as ancillary to the purchase agreement, which does not lead to regulatory licensing requirements. By contrast, if a third party offers a guarantee this is to be considered as an insurance business and therefore requires a permit.     

Kongruente Rückdeckung von Pensionszusagen durch Versicherungsprodukte

When a German employer establishes a defined benefit pension plan for his employees, it is common practice in Germany to purchase life insurance policies in order to finance the plan and transfer the risks from the plan to the insurer. A complete transfer of risk can only be obtained by purchasing a congruent insurance policy. The present paper develops a formal definition of congruence of an insurance policy to a pension plan. The definition is applied to a simple practical example. It becomes clear that it is almost impossible to obtain congruence of a traditional German life insurance product to an employer's defined benefit pension plan.     

Insurance markets and unisex tariffs: is the European Court of Justice improving or destroying welfare?

We analyze the effects of mandatory unisex tariffs in insurance contracts, such as those required by a recent ruling of the European Court of Justice, on equilibrium insurance premia and equilibrium welfare. In a unified framework, we provide a quantitative analysis of the associated insurance market equilibria in both monopolistic and competitive insurance markets. We investigate the welfare loss caused by regulatory adverse selection and show that unisex tariffs may cause market distortions that significantly reduce overall social welfare.     

Asymmetric Information, Long-Term Care Insurance, and Annuities: The Case for Bundled Contracts

This article examines the markets for long-term care insurance and annuities when there is asymmetric information and there are costs of administering contracts. Individuals differ in terms of their risk aversion. Risk-averse individuals take more care of their health and are relatively high risk in the annuities market and relatively low risk in the long-term care insurance market. In the long-term care insurance market, both separating and partial-pooling equilibria are possible. However, in the stand-alone annuity market, only separating equilibria are possible. We show, consistent with the extant empirical research, that in the presence of administration costs the more risk-averse individuals may buy relatively more long-term care insurance and more annuity coverage. Under the same assumptions, we show that equilibria exist with bundled contracts that Pareto dominate the outcomes with stand-alone contracts and are robust to competition from stand-alone contracts. The remaining empirical puzzle is to explain why bundled contracts are such a small share of the voluntary annuity market.     

Understanding price competition in the German motor insurance market

This paper analyzes price competition in the German motor insurance market since 1994 and looks for evidence to back up a claim frequently found in the trade literature—that there have been two recent price wars in this industry, the first in 1996–1999, the second in 2005–2006. In a first step, we analyze the development of the German motor insurance market and compare it to that of other property-liability lines of business. In a second step the applicability of price war definitions found in the marketing literature to the German motor insurance market is checked. In a third step, a comparison to reference cases from other industries, where price wars have been subject to academic analysis, is conducted to complement the analysis. We conclude that, contrary to reports in the trade literature, the periods of 1996–1999 and 2005–2006 should be considered as times of intense competition in the motor insurance industry, not as times of price war.     

Unbundling of insurance contracts according to IFRSs – applicability and limitations

Insurance contracts are difficult to report on in financial statements because they often – or even regularly – contain both an insurance component and a so-called deposit component. Both IFRS 4 “Insurance Contracts” and the IASB's recent Discussion Paper entitled “Preliminary Views on Insurance Contracts” require an insurer to unbundle those components under certain conditions. In this regard, unbundling refers to accounting for the deposit component separately from the insurance component as if they were independent contracts. However, the Discussion Paper contains no guidelines on how the process of unbundling shall be carried out. It is the authors' aim to develop a solution for the separation problem which is innovative, theoretically correct and practically applicable. The principal innovation is the way of distinction between different types of deposit components. Dividing them into “implicit” and “explicit” deposit components delivers the theoretically correct results for unbundling of insurance contracts for accounting purposes. While unbundling can be carried out without major difficulties in the case of insurance contracts containing an explicit deposit component, it is only implementable in exceptional cases for insurance contracts containing an implicit deposit component.     

Portfolio structure of the German households and the role of insurance and pension entitlements

This paper examines the wealth structure of German households from 1975 to 2014 with special reference to the asset class insurance and pension entitlements. Therefore we use a unique dataset of Deutsche Bundesbank and apply a Financial Almost Ideal Demand System (FAIDS). We find a nearly proportional reaction of the insurance share to changes in the total wealth level, but no significant impact of the insurance return to the asset class. Therefore we conclude that security and not return optimization is the main demand motive for the asset class insurance and pension entitlements. Finally, we find a positive relation between the share of the elderly in Germany and the insurance share in the portfolio.     

Peer-to-Peer-Absicherung privater Risiken: Eine Exploration am Beispiel von Wildschaden

This paper examines the extent to which business model development is an effective method of surmounting market failure in the insurance industry. In particular, it endeavours to demonstrate that replacing the traditional relationship between the insured and the insurer with a bilateral agreement opens up new markets, thus enabling hitherto non-insurable risks to be covered by new peer-to-peer business models. The insurance against risks caused by wild animals was chosen as the empirical field, since it is known to be an area which exhibits market failure. Based on 16 episodic interviews with representatives of the hunting community, demand structures and relevant contextual factors are revealed and analysed in terms of risk coverage and claims management among community members. This paper thus proposes an alternative position to that of the traditional insurance business, in which cover is based on a large and diversified risk group.     

Zur Entscheidungsnützlichkeit eines IFRS-Abschlusses von Versicherern – Analyse der angedachten Regelungen zum endgültigen IFRS 4

In its Discussion Paper from May 2007 for the final IFRS 4 (“Insurance Contracts”), the IASB planned the “Current Exit Value” (CEV) to evaluate insurance liabilities. The aim of this article is to examine the impacts of the planned Current-Exit-Value-Approach on the decision usefulness of insurers' financial statements. In order to evaluate accounting rules, the criterion decision usefulness is divided into two sub-criteria – relevance and reliability. We found out that the Current-Exit-Value-Approach for insurance contracts in conjunction with fair value accounting of relating assets actually generates relevant information for users of insurers' financial statements. But we have serious concerns about a cost-adequate implementation of CEV approach. Furthermore, the reliability of accounting information based on a synthetic fair value is strongly questionable. Only extensive disclosure requirements can bring transparency to users and therefore assure reliable accounting information. Besides, there are other topics that should be reviewed before releasing a final standard (e.?g. customer relationship, credit characteristics of insurance liabilities, unit of account).     

Die Mitgliedschaft EG-ausländischer Versicherungsunternehmen im Sicherungsfond der Lebens- und Krankenversicherung

The present regulation of the German guarantee funds for life and health insurance offers no possibility for insurance enterprises from other memberstates of the EC to become a member of these funds. Whereas an obligatory membership for EC-foreign insurance enterprises would violate the single-license-principle for financial supervision in the EC, community law requires a possibility to become a member of the German guarantee funds on a voluntary basis. The absence of the possibility of such a voluntary membership in the German insurance supervision law leads to an inadmissible restriction of the fundamental economic freedom rights of the common market. Therefore, the German legislator has to add the possibility of a voluntary membership to his national regulation of the guarantee funds to secure an undistorted competition on the common market for insurance in the EC.     

Der neue Standard zur bilanziellen Abbildung von Versicherungsverträgen (IFRS 17) – Eine kritische Analyse der Auswirkungen auf die Versicherungsbranche

The new standard for the accounting of insurance contracts (IFRS 17) will entail substantial changes for the insurance industry. In the following article the new standard is critically analyzed. First and foremost the coming valuation model, the so-called building block approach, is presented which will be the basis for all insurance contracts within the scope of IFRS 17. (For certain insurance contracts, especially those with direct participation features, or for less complex or short-term insurance contracts, there are some modifications.) To be more precise, IFRS 17 introduces an enterprise-specific valuation approach that is grounded on the so-called fulfilment value. This fulfilment value is determined by four separate building blocks (fulfilment-cashflow, discount rate, risk margin and contractual service margin), which will be addressed in detail. Finally, major changes in performed accounting practices that insurance enterprises are confronted with and will have to adapt to in their financial statements and accounts are pointed out.     

Mittelbare Diskriminierungen bei Unisex-Versicherungstarifen

The article drafts a concept for applying the prohibition of indirect gender discrimination in the specific situation of insurance tariffs. In order to reveal indirect discrimination it has to be shown that each gender is affected differently by a differentiating factor to a significant extent. The basis is a statistical comparison between the total group and the disadvantaged subgroup (among potential insurance holders). Because of Art. 5 (1) of Council Directive 2004/113/EC a statistically verifiable risk difference cannot justify indirect discriminations by itself. The provision prohibits not only direct discrimination but also the use of differentiating factors highly correlated with one gender as the correlation leads to the inclusion of a higher gender-specific risk. Therefore only distinctions which are based on the individual insurance record can be justified as their aim is to influence future behaviour. In other cases it is necessary to separate the risk difference causally linked to the differentiating factor from the incorporated gender-specific risk difference.     

Die Auswirkungen der steigenden Lebenserwartung auf die Prävalenz der Pflegebedürftigkeit in Deutschland

As a consequence of population ageing the number of persons in need of care will rise considerably in the decades to come. While the rise per se is uncontroversial a still open question is whether the increase in longevity will raise or lower the age-specific prevalence of long term care. As there are both empirical studies finding an increase or a decrease of prevalence as life expectancy increases, most existing projections of the number of persons in need of care are based on the assumption of constant age-specific prevalence rates. While this question cannot be answered ultimately from the current point of view, this paper gives some guidance on the range of the future increase in cases. To this end we first analyze the interplay of changes in mortality, incidence and prevalence within a flow figure model. This approach allows for a better understanding of the conditions which must be met for an increase or a decline of the prevalence of care in the future. Based on German data we then adapt a scenario approach to analyze the model's quantitative implications for the prevalence of care and the number of nursing cases in the future. Our results indicate that the number of nursing cases will range between 2,6?m and 7?m persons in the year 2060. Nonetheless, based on the existing empirical findings for Germany and other industrialized countries, a doubling on 4?m persons in need of care seems to be the most realistic scenario.     

保险合同的一些法律问题

我国保险法研究尚处于发展阶段,有关保险合同问题的认识比较混乱.本文针对争论比较多的保险合同的特征、保险合同中的要约与承诺、保险合同的形式以及保险利益等四个问题展开分析和讨论.文中充分利用了已有的研究成果,通过对比发现一些问题,并结合司法实践对相关问题进行再认识,从而提出了一些新的观点.     

Digital insurance brokers—old wine in new bottles? How digital brokers create value

This article analyzes digital brokers in the countries of the DACH region, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, from a business model perspective. We argue that the potential to create new value for insurance customers has not yet been fully realized. Our analysis has identified two strategic action areas. The first concerns the exploitation of the wealth of customer data available. Those digital brokers who will succeed in generating new content and services using data analytics have the potential to take customer centricity and individuality to new bounds. The second centers around introducing aspects of community, such as connecting peers and enabling them to interact. The critical success factors are volume, a high degree of automation as well as leveraging the infrastructure and data to delivering new, value-adding content and services that go beyond traditional intermediation.