Financial distribution

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A financial sales organization is a sales organization that provides its customers, primarily consumers, with a comprehensive all-finance range of financial products such as insurance , investment and financing . Financial sales representatives are generally contacts, but not contractual partners for the transactions they broker. There can often be conflicting goals on the part of the sales consultant, which entail considerable risks for the customer.

History of Financial Sales

The branch of sales organizations acting as “independent financial intermediaries” developed in the early 1970s after the bankruptcy of the financial service provider Investors Overseas Services (IOS). Former top managers of the IOS founded their own structural sales in the financial sector : Otto Witschier ( OVB and EFS), Werner Kunkler ( HMI ), Erich Mende ( Bonnfinanz ), Reinfried Pohl ( DVAG ) and Udo Keller ( Tecis ). In 1988 the ex-OVB country director founded Carsten Maschmeyer founded AWD, another structured sales organization, which was completely taken over by the Swiss insurer Swiss Life in 2008 and renamed Swiss Life Select in 2012. MLP AG , founded in 1971 by Manfred Lautenschläger , specialized in the target group of academics and, according to its own statements, is not organized as a structured sales organization.

With the development of the Internet, financial sales companies specialized in certain product segments such as Interhyp (real estate financing), Impuls Finanzmanagement (private health insurance) and Dr. Klein & Co. AG (real estate). Unlike many existing providers, these new financial distributors are not structured distributors.

Business principle

Financial distributors mediate contracts between consumers and companies in the financial sector . The customer does not pay a fee for the consultation itself, but the financial sales department receives commissions and / or brokerage fees for each brokered transaction. The commissions and brokerage fees are already included in the premium of the brokered product.

Customer acquisition in financial sales is largely determined by the organizational form and the target group. Structure sales mainly use contacts in the private sphere or at work, such as DVAG or OVB. MLP concentrates its activities on universities. Newer financial distributors usually reach their customer contacts through targeted advertising on the Internet. Most financial distributors bind their sales staff in the form of independent commercial agents in accordance with Section 84 of the German Commercial Code .

Structures other than the commercial agency model have also been represented in newer financial sales since the mid-1990s. The Interhyp sales staff are employees subject to social security contributions . Dr. Klein & Co. AG is associated with independent financial brokers in accordance with Section 93 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) through a franchise agreement with financial sales, whereby, as with the commercial agency model, the entrepreneurial risk lies with the agent.

Conflicting goals

The consumer saves his own effort for his own needs analysis and market research or alternative fees for financial advisors . Consumer protection organizations, however, accuse the financial distributors and their commercial agents of systematically not advising consumers according to their needs, but providing incomplete advice and taking advantage of them. Above all, the misleading self-portrayal as an objective consultant, low demands on training and the system-related pressure to sell that sales representatives in structured sales and similar organizations are under are criticized.

Financial sales organizations are sales organizations that supply private consumers as customers to the financial industry in return for commission. The commercial agents act as "advisors" to consumers, since they advise on the choice of optimal contractual partners ("financial advisors", "financial advisors") according to their own right. Characteristic of financial sales is their alleged "objectivity" and "independence" from the financial firms ultimately to be brokered. However, this self-claim collides with the economic self-interest of the financial sales force and their commercial agents as well as with the legal duty of loyalty to the brokered companies from Section 86 (1) HGB.

The mediators and their financial service providers provide for their "consulting services" to the customer no fee charged, but receive sales commissions from the mediated enterprise. These commissions are often different, which is why the selection is influenced in an unrelated way. In addition, it is not uncommon for financial distributors to receive special benefits (super commissions, marketing subsidies, bonuses in kind, etc.) as part of “premium partnerships”. Since May 22, 2007, brokers have also been required to disclose their purchase commission for certain financial services products in accordance with the EU Brokerage Directive . From the beginning of July 2008, life insurance providers are obliged to show the sum of the withheld money as an absolute amount in the contract documents.

Certificate of competence of the consultants

Until the European Brokerage Directive came into force on May 22, 2007, no specialist qualifications were required for the brokerage of financial products . For the brokerage of insurance contracts, the following applies: Unless a letter of comfort is given by an insurer for which the broker acts as an exclusive agent, since January 1, 2009 every free broker must present an entry in the broker register. For registration in the broker register, an official approval according to § 34d GewO is required. The agent only receives this through proof of a proficiency test, which has been accepted by the local IHKs since 2008.

Since January 1, 2013, proof of competence has also been required for other financial products - such as capital investments.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family ties ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brandeins.de
  2. ↑ Financial service provider MLP: "No structured sales". Stiftung Warentest , November 19, 2005, accessed on December 12, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Seller on behalf of the customer: insurance broker - financial broker , consumer protection magazine .
  4. ^ Financial test 3/1999 .
  5. ↑ Pusher ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Association of the Insured .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundderversicherung.de
  6. ↑ Life insurance under pressure to justify , FAZ from June 16, 2008.