Association of the insured

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The Federation of Insureds e. V. ( BdV ) is a non-profit consumer protection organization based in Hamburg , which advocates the rights of consumers in insurance .

The BdV has been a member of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations since December 2nd, 2015 . The association has around 45,000 members.

founding

The association was founded by Volker Brauns, Gerhard Graf and Hans Dieter Meyer on February 24, 1982 in Hamburg. The first board of directors consisted of Brauns (first chairman), Graf (second chairman), Meyer (managing director), Richter (treasurer), Dahlke (secretary).

society

The independent association was initially financed exclusively through membership fees.

The purpose of the association includes the protection of the interests of the insured, the information of consumers and the elimination of grievances in the insurance sector. The association's offer includes information sheets on various types of insurance as well as extensive brochures, which are also made available online free of charge. Tools can also be used to determine insurance requirements, sample letters to the insurer and a life and pension insurance calculator that can be used to determine whether it is worthwhile to continue the contract.

The BdV is a qualified institution in accordance with Section 4 of the Injunctive Action Act . He fights for the rights of policyholders in the form of test cases. The club has had numerous successes here in recent years.

The association regularly supports, in some cases, major claims by insurance customers against insurance companies. The BdV sees particularly capital-forming life insurance policies as a non-transparent form of insurance that is unsuitable for the majority of consumers and generally advises a separation of capital investment and risk protection. As early as 1983, the Hamburg Regional Court dismissed a lawsuit by the Association of Life Insurance Companies against the association's statement "Endowment life insurances are legal fraud" as unfounded, as this was a permissible expression of opinion. Between 2001 and 2005, major points of criticism of life insurance regarding surrender values ​​and surplus sharing were legally taken into account through rulings by the Federal Supreme Court and the Federal Constitutional Court and ultimately led to a new legal regulation in the Insurance Contract Act .

Members also have access to so-called group insurances , which are insurance contracts with different providers at terms and conditions negotiated by the BdV according to its own principles and which are brokered by the BdV free of commission.

Since 1993, a scientific conference has been held every year on insurance-related and consumer policy topics. Target group are participants from the insurance industry, politics, media, consumer protection and science. The conference is designed by a scientific advisory board.

Board of Directors / Supervisory Board

Axel Kleinlein has been spokesman for the Executive Board since September 2011, with a brief interruption. Stephen Rehmke has been an additional board member since February 2019. Mario Leuner, who was appointed to the board in 2013, left the BdV in 2019.

Edda Castelló (Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board) and Peter Schütt (Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board) have been members of the Supervisory Board since September 2013. Since September 2014, Dr. Gernot Stenger member of the supervisory board.

Current development

The BdV no longer finances itself solely from membership fees, but also from rental income for renting its rooms to a brokerage company that arranges group contracts for BdV members and collects fees for them. The agency belongs to the BdV 100%, so that profits from the GmbH belong to the BdV.

Power struggle over the direction of the association (2006-2013)

From 2006 there was a power struggle over the direction of the association. Among other things, it was a question of whether the association concentrates on negotiating and offering group insurance policies for its members or whether it acts more politically and z. B. leads or supports model lawsuits against insurance companies or lobbies for relevant legislative proposals. In the course of these disputes, a supervisory board was installed and members of the management board were dismissed or other management board members subsequently resigned from their mandates. In some cases, the development was flanked by open letters from recalled or resigned board members and the works council as well as statements from the respective board of directors. The highlight was the extraordinary general meeting on September 14, 2013. At this the remaining supervisory board members Horst Gobrecht and Franz-Theodor Schadendorf were recalled and replaced by the three new supervisory board members Edda Castelló, Oskar Durstin and Peter Schütt. This decided the power struggle, in favor of a more politically active orientation.

Insurance cheese of the year

On June 1, 2015, the association awarded a prize for the worst insurance product of the year for the first time. This has since been awarded at the annual science conference. The winner in the first year of the award was Allianz with the product “All about the arena visit”.

Model declaratory action

The Federation of Insureds is one of the 78 selected associations in Germany that are allowed to carry out a model declaratory action .

Web links

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  1. ↑ The Bund der Insured can be reached in Hamburg from now on. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
  2. a b bundderversicherung.de/… - Press release December 21, 2015 “BdV is a new member of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations” (PDF file) (accessed on April 16, 2016).
  3. Henning Thielemann: The BdV - Association of the Insured or Association of the Insecure? Association of Insured Persons, November 9, 2007, accessed on May 18, 2008 .
  4. ^ BdV general assembly elects supervisory board for new term of office. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
  5. Brief outline of the BdV history 2006-2013. (PDF) July 13, 2013, accessed June 18, 2015 .
  6. Kerstin Leitel, Thomas Schmitt: Axel Kleinlein is again CEO. Handelsblatt, September 15, 2013, accessed on June 18, 2015 .
  7. Honoring the worst insurance product of the year. BDV press release. June 1, 2015, accessed January 7, 2016 .
  8. ^ Federal Office of Justice: List of qualified institutions in accordance with Section 4 of the Injunctive Action Act (UKlaG). Retrieved June 6, 2019 .