Reinsurance
The reinsurance policy is a life insurance that a company to finance a license granted to the employee pension plan ( "direct commitment") concludes with a life insurance company. It serves primarily to outsource the risks associated with the pension obligation. Financing and reinsurance benefits are part of the company pension scheme .
Nature of reinsurance
The employer finances the underlying pension commitment for his employees (example: Executive A should receive a monthly pension of EUR 750 at age) with the company's own money. If he takes out reinsurance, he outsources the financing by paying contributions to a life insurance company, whereby he remains obliged to fulfill the commitment under labor law. He must therefore at least ensure that the contributions paid are received. In the event of a pension, he is obliged to pay his employee or the surviving dependents a contractually regulated amount from the reinsurance that has become due.
Technically, the company ( employer ) becomes both policyholder and contributor as well as beneficiary of the reinsurance contract. The employee becomes the insured person . The reinsurance itself is not a performance promise and therefore not a form of company pension scheme; it only serves to finance them. Rather, the performance promise follows from the commitment given to the employee, which is why the employee cannot derive any original claims from the insurance. The underlying pension commitment must be seen separately from the reinsurance.
Other performance promises made by the employer are also covered by such contracts: For example, time credit on working time accounts or partial retirement credit .
Balance sheet effects
The immediate commitment of company pension benefits is a liability item in the employer's balance sheet ( pension provision ); however, the reinsurance is shown in the balance sheet with an asset value (corresponds to the actuarial reserve plus profit sharing ), since the offsetting prohibition of Section 246 (2) HGB applies. According to the new version of Section 246 (2) of the German Commercial Code (HGB), the BilMoG applies for the purposes of offsetting if the insurance is identified as plan assets . According to International Accounting Standards (IFRS), offsetting is possible under certain conditions. In this case, the reinsurance is referred to as a “qualifying insurance policy” and is treated like plan assets .
Types of commitment
Reinsurance can be granted through real “benefit commitments” or “defined contribution commitments”. “Contribution commitments with minimum benefits”, which could exempt from the obligation to adjust the assessment according to § 16 BetrAVG, are not provided. Congruently structured reinsurance policies are advantageous, i.e. safeguards that cover the commitment economically and help to achieve neutrality in the commercial balance sheet. The reinsurance is measured using the present value , which is derived from Klaus Heubeck's mortality tables .
Benefits of reinsurance
The reinsurance has the tax advantage of proving the "seriousness" of a performance promise in favor of the employee towards the permanent establishment tax office and serves in parallel to the "balance sheet optics" ( Basel II ) with the aim of risk-adjusted equity backing for loans. The profitability of the company, the capital structure, the degree of external financing, the assessment of the quality of the industry and the income as well as their management can be analyzed in a targeted manner. Another advantage is recognized in the fact that balance sheet risks , as non-operational risks, can be hedged. In the case of shareholder-managing directors , the reinsurance can also be pledged to provide lasting insolvency protection.
literature
- Uwe Hamann: The reinsurance from a civil, insurance and labor law perspective . (At the same time dissertation at the University of Hamburg 1990). Frankfurt am Main [u. a.], Lang 1991. ISBN 3-631-43134-1 .
- Andreas Thierer: Reinsurance for direct commitments in company pension schemes . IFA, Ulm 2012. (At the same time dissertation at the University of Ulm, 2012). ISBN 978-3-942493-08-6 .
- Andreas Wonnenberg: Cover concepts for pension commitments: How to finance and secure pension obligations . Haufe Verlag, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-648-03551-1 .