Swiss Life Select

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Swiss Life Select Germany GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1988 (as AWD GmbH)
Seat Hanover , Germany
management
  • Stefan Kuehl, member of the management
  • Christian Linnewedel, member of the management
sales EUR 386 million (2018)
Branch Financial distribution
Website https://www.swisslife-select.de

Swiss Life Select Deutschland GmbH , headquartered in Hanover, is a broker for financial advice , brokerage of insurance, investments and financing as well as real estate from a large number of product partners for private households and companies. Swiss Life Select Deutschland GmbH is registered as an insurance agent with the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry in accordance with the EU Brokerage Directive . Via Swiss Life Deutschland Holding, Swiss Life Select is a wholly owned subsidiary of the listed Swiss financial advisory and insurance group Swiss Life . Today's Swiss Life Select Germany emerged from the formerly listed AWD.

Key figures

Swiss Life Select does not publish separate financial figures but is included in the consolidated financial statements of Swiss Life Deutschland Holding. In the consolidated financial statements of Swiss Life Deutschland Holding, the four financial distributors Swiss Life Select Deutschland, tecis, HORBACH and Proventus generated sales of 385.5 million euros in the 2018 financial year. The number of consultants as of December 31, 2017 is reported as 3538 consultants licensed under commercial law. Around 750 permanent employees currently work at the Hanover location, the back office for all end customer sales.

history

Swiss Life Select is based in Hanover-Lahe

The AWD company was founded in 1987. Contrary to popular belief that Carsten Maschmeyer founded the company alone, together with his later wife Bettina or her brother Kai Lange, the official founder Kai Lange was alone or with his girlfriend Ulrike Schröter. Maschmeyer, who for years posed as the alleged founder of the AWD company, only entered the company a few months later with 900,000 DM and thus took over the majority. He previously worked for the financial services company OVB Vermögensberatung .

In 1991 AWD expanded to Austria, the following year AWD Switzerland was founded. In 1999 the group took over the financial services provider S&C and in 2000 the financial services provider Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Finanzberatung (GWF). In 2000 the company went public and AWD subsequently took over other consulting companies. In 2001, Dr. Blumrath AG merged with the Horbach Wirtschaftsberatung GmbH, which was also acquired and was intended to address the academic market in particular. In the same year AWD also took over the British distribution company Thomson's. Further takeovers in Great Britain and Eastern Europe followed. In Germany, the Hamburg company tecis was taken over in 2002 and the German Proventus Group in 2008.

In 2007, the Swiss financial advisory and insurance group Swiss Life (formerly the Swiss Life Insurance and Pension Fund) acquired the majority of shares in AWD from the Maschmeyer family. As a result of the takeover and reorganization of Swiss Life in Germany, AWD Holding was merged with Swiss Life Deutschland Holding GmbH in 2013. As one of the holding's four main sales companies, AWD Germany was renamed Swiss Life Select Germany. After Carsten Maschmeyer supported the takeover of his company by Swiss Life in December 2007, Swiss Life acquired the majority of his shares. On March 13, 2008, Swiss Life successfully completed an offer to the shareholders of AWD Holding AG, which initially increased their stake in AWD to 86 percent. In mid-August 2008, Swiss Life announced that it had also taken over the remaining 10.5 percent stake held by Carsten Maschmeyer and thus now held 96.7 percent of AWD shares. In the spring of 2009, Carsten Maschmeyer's initial withdrawal from operational business took place and when he resigned his position on the Board of Directors in December 2011, he left the company completely. At the end of 2012, AWD was renamed Swiss Life Select.

Manfred Behrens, formerly managing director of the German Swiss Life branch in Munich and since September 2008 Co-Chief Executive Officer of the AWD, took over the chairmanship of the AWD in early April 2009. In January 2013 Manfred Behrens took over the post of Chief Executive Officer of Swiss Life Germany as part of the merger of AWD Holding with Swiss Life Deutschland Holding. At the end of March 2014, Manfred Behrens handed over the CEO position to his management colleague, the Swiss Markus Leibundgut. Jörg Arnold has been the new CEO of Swiss Life Deutschland Holding since July 1, 2017.

Former listing on the stock exchange

IPO

The financial services company went public in October 2000. Just four months later, on March 18, 2001, the company was included in the MDAX . Both in terms of market capitalization (51st place among the DAX 100 companies) and trading volume (56th place among the DAX 100 companies), AWD was at the top. A total of 9.9 million new shares were placed at an issue price of EUR 54. As a result of the IPO, AWD Holding AG received DM 974.8 million in liquid funds after deducting the IPO expenses (70.8 million D-Marks). At the time, 21 percent of AWD shares were owned by company employees, and a further 26 percent were held by private and institutional investors. Great Britain (28 percent) and Germany (24 percent) formed the focus of institutional investors. Italy (8 percent), Switzerland (11 percent) and non-European investors (18 percent) were also strongly represented. 53 percent of the shares were held by the Maschmeyer family.

From around EUR 60 at the beginning of 2001, the AWD share price had fallen to below EUR 10 by the end of 2002. By the end of 2003, the share rose again to around 30 euros, and by mid-2005 to just under 40 euros. Shortly before, the founder Maschmeyer had sold 20 percent of his shares. The magazine Stern and other media expressed the suspicion in this regard that he had already known about the negative business development in 2005 at the time of the sale. After a brief interim high, the price fell back to around EUR 25 by autumn 2007. First-time subscribers have thus lost almost 60 percent of the capital invested. The AWD share price has developed significantly worse than the DAX, MDAX or TecDAX since the IPO .

Takeover offer from Swiss Life and delisting

In March 2005, AWD boss Maschmeyer had sold 7.6 million shares over the counter and reduced his stake to 31 percent. According to Maschmeyer, this was primarily about a higher free float in favor of AWD. In December 2007, Swiss Life Holding and AWD announced the conclusion of a strategic partnership; At the same time, Swiss Life Holding announced that it would make the shareholders of AWD a takeover offer at EUR 30 per AWD share. The life insurer had already taken over 20 percent of the Maschmeyer family as part of its takeover offer to all shareholders.

At the end of 2008, the Maschmeyer family transferred the 10.46 percent stake in Swiss Life, which thus held 96.7 percent. This put Swiss Life in a position to persuade the owners of the remaining shares to sell by means of a compulsory settlement and then to take AWD out of stock exchange trading. In early January 2009, the company said in a ad-hoc announcement with that Swiss Life Beteiligungs GmbH in Hanover, a 100 percent subsidiary of Swiss Life Holding in Zurich, the cash compensation for the ousting ( squeeze out ) the remaining minority shareholders to 30 euros per share. The Extraordinary General Meeting took place on February 24, 2009 , at which it was decided to oust the minority shareholders.

On 24 February 2009 had the commercial register of the local court Hanover resolution of the Extraordinary General Meeting on the transfer of shares of minority shareholders to Swiss Life Beteiligungs GmbH (majority shareholder) in return for adequate cash compensation of 30 euros per no-par value bearer shares with a arithmetical proportional amount of the share capital of one euro entered in the company's commercial register.

With the entry of the transfer resolution in the commercial register, all shares of the minority shareholders of AWD Holding Aktiengesellschaft have been transferred to Swiss Life Beteiligungs GmbH by law. The listing of the shares of AWD Holding Aktiengesellschaft ceased on November 10, 2009.

Sporting and social engagement

Sports sponsorship

The company promotes numerous clubs in the field of soccer, handball, volleyball and basketball as well as amateur sports and acts as a sponsor of more than 2500 popular sports teams, especially youth teams, nationwide. Just like the support of the sports clubs themselves, the name sponsoring shows the company's social commitment.

At the start of the 2002/2003 Bundesliga season , the financial services provider acquired the naming rights to the football field of the first division club Hannover 96 for two million euros per season : the Lower Saxony stadium became the AWD-Arena (today: HDI-Arena ) and the stadium sports hall by summer 2013 the AWD Hall, today the Swiss Life Hall . In Bremen, the city ​​hall was called AWD-Dome after the renovation from 2004/2005 to 2009 .

Commitment to children in need worldwide

For many years, Swiss Life Select has been involved through the non-profit foundation Zuversicht für Kinder (formerly AWD-Stiftung Kinderhilfe), founded in 1991. Since then, both the independent sales representatives and the company's employees have voluntarily donated one percent of their salaries to national and international aid projects for children in need around the world.

criticism

Consultant and sales representative

The career and compensation model of Swiss Life Select today (as of 2016) provides for a gradual entry for prospective consultants. Depending on their future orientation, the prospective consultants must pass the IHK examination to become an insurance specialist according to §34d GewO and the IHK examination to become a financial investment specialist according to §34f GewO. As part of their specialist and sales training, junior consultants can apply for a commission advance as a so-called "start-up aid". The granting of this advance depends on the fulfillment of certain quality criteria. The advance payment is intended to enable the prospective consultants to concentrate on the content of the course during their training. As soon as the consultant has completed his basic training with all the necessary final examinations in front of the chambers of industry and commerce and has started the consultancy work, a full commission model is usually selected. This depends on performance and manager.

Former AWD employees described their personal and painful experiences with the group on the Internet under various domains from December 2002 to May 2003. The AWD then tried to legally close the domains awd-aussteiger.de and aussteigerforum.de . Both sides no longer exist. The association of former AWD employees is currently active.

With the implementation of the so-called EU Insurance Brokerage Directive in 2007, commercial insurance brokerage was regulated for the first time within the framework of German trade law (§34d GewO). Since then, one of the compulsory requirements for all independent insurance brokers active in the market has been proof of the proficiency test before the chambers of industry and commerce. In addition, professional liability in a defined minimum amount, orderly financial circumstances and reliability under commercial law are required. Before the statute of limitations was changed with effect from the turn of the year 2011/12, there were more and more lawsuits against AWD and other financial service providers , banks and savings banks in Germany between 2006 and 2010 . In many cases, the investors were represented by specialized law firms. The plaintiffs mostly invoked that they had not been given sufficient advice on the risks of financial investments when the contract was signed in the 1990s and accused AWD of incorrect advice. Almost without exception, this accusation turned out to be unfounded: AWD was able to prove, among other things, through its advisory protocols introduced in 1995, that it had adequately clarified investment risks. These conversation notes had been countersigned by the investors. In addition, the investment prospectuses issued indicated the risks associated with the respective capital investment. The majority of the lawsuits were therefore dismissed by the competent courts.

After the implementation of the EU Insurance Brokerage Directive in 2007, the regulatory and qualification requirements for financial advisors have been gradually tightened to this day. The customer orientation of financial intermediaries is also regularly checked and assessed by external consulting companies. For advice in complex pension areas, financial advisors at Swiss Life Select have to meet stricter requirements: For example, the area of company pension schemes has been a specialist area since the start of the pension reform at the beginning of the millennium. Only trained consultants with specialized knowledge are allowed to advise.

According to consistent reports from a large number of former employees, the financial situation of many former AWD consultants is very poor. The reason for this is that the group charges fees and ancillary costs for the use of the AWD infrastructure. These fees are also to be paid if the consultant has little or no success. In addition, there are often reports of unfavorable commission calculations at the expense of the self-employed commercial agent, but there are no specific examples of this. According to the criticism, the fluctuation in the individual branches is often extremely high, and the representatives who have become economically dependent are partly over-indebted and are under enormous pressure to sell. In 2003, for example, a four-digit number of former AWD employees faced, in some cases, five-digit commission reclaims. In the course of the restructuring and takeover by Swiss Life Select, economic burdens on the consultants due to cancellation costs will be cushioned with the help of a so-called cancellation reserve. Each sales agent pays a percentage of the commission generated into this in order to absorb cancellation rates that could, for example, result from leaving the group. The commercial agent is liable for each cancellation, regardless of whether it is due to incorrect advice or the customer terminates on a whim. In addition, every independent commercial agent - as in the private sector - is responsible for his own economic and entrepreneurial success.

AWD victims

By March 2009, a total of 6,500 AWD victims had reported to the Austrian Association for Consumer Information (VKI) for the planned class action because of the brokerage of the Immofinanz and Immoeast shares that had crashed during the course . The reason for the lawsuit is the allegation that AWD consultants had been promoting Immofinanz shares as a trustworthy investment since the late 1990s . In many cases, all of a customer's available assets are said to have been invested in real estate finance stocks or other real estate stocks. Often the shares are apparently dubbed “real estate funds” and the word “shares” was deliberately avoided. In addition, there was talk of “capital guarantees” and the possibility of a total loss was not mentioned. According to the VKI, the accumulation of objections indicates systematic deficiencies in the AWD's advisory organization. The German litigation financier Foris bears the litigation cost risk, which means that the injured party can participate in the class action without any cost risk. In the event of success, a success rate must be paid to Foris, which depends on how quickly a solution can be achieved.

In March 2011 the Stiftung Warentest announced that the number of dissatisfied AWD customers was not in the per mille range, as Carsten Maschmeyer, the long-standing CEO of the holding company, claims; rather, the Stiftung Warentest has an AWD list, according to which “over 34,000 AWD customers” with closed real estate funds from Capital Konsult from Stuttgart are making losses .

Conversation strategy

The consulting process can usually be divided into three phases:

  • The first meeting usually takes place with the potential customer. There, the financial advisor presents the company and the service in a standardized presentation, discusses the customer's goals and wishes for a target-oriented concept and ascertains the customer's current and desired financial situation.
  • The second interview usually follows after a few days. The potential customer is presented with a 25 to 50 page “Personal Financial Report” (PFG). This based on software created by the gfp company for private financial planning shows the current situation and any existing supply gaps, summarizes investment opportunities and presents specific suggestions for optimization.
  • At the second or third meeting, optimization measures may be implemented or contracts may be concluded, provided the customer decides to use the Swiss Life Select service. The consultants have pre-filled forms with them and hand over the legally required documents to the customer. If you have any questions, reference is also made to legal rights such as the possibility of termination. In the past, according to many court rulings, this was partially omitted by former AWD employees. Since the introduction of the VVG guideline, it has been mandatory to record the consultation. According to its own statements, the former AWD has been fulfilling this obligation since 2001 by introducing discussion notes. The minutes summarize all relevant conversation content and discuss opportunities and risks, document the certification of the consultant and contain clauses on data protection.

GKM litigation

A legal dispute broke out over the purchase of GKM Gesellschaft für Professionelles Kapitalmanagement AG from its 100 percent parent company RL Holding GmbH by AWD. According to Reinhard Listl, board member of GKM and managing director of RL Holding, the relevant purchase agreement was concluded on September 10, 2008, subject to the approval of the supervisory board of the AWD group. On September 11th, Maschmeyer transferred the agreed purchase price in the double-digit million range. Since the AWD supervisory board had not agreed to the purchase, it is now disputed whether Maschmeyer has thus bought GKM, as Listl describes it, or whether the purchase is invalid due to the rejection in the AWD supervisory board and should therefore be reversed. Due to the ruling by the Regional Court of Regensburg on May 31, 2009, the sale was reversed and Reinhard Listl has now repaid the purchase price of 40 million euros to Carsten Maschmeyer. Carsten Maschmeyer waived interest of around 2 million euros. The court costs of around 1.5 million euros remained with Reinhard Listl. Due to the possible sale of GKM, more than 300 commercial agents left GKM.

Court ruling on the independence of the AWD

A ruling by the Hanover Regional Court on June 30, 2009 prohibited AWD from using the word “independent” in its claim “Your independent financial optimizer” to advertise. The court justified the judgment by saying that from an economic point of view, Swiss Life, as the controlling company, could exert an influence on the AWD. In addition, Manfred Behrens, the former CEO of Swiss Life in Germany, now runs the company. AWD announced that it would appeal the judgment. AWD has meanwhile changed its claim to “your personal financial optimizer”.

AWD Austria

On December 7, 2011, Carsten Maschmeyer announced his resignation from the Board of Directors of Swiss Life Holding AG with immediate effect, one day after Stern magazine revealed in its issue No. 49/2011 (old bills) that Carsten Maschmeyer and AWD in Austria a criminal investigation by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office (file number 13 St 2 / 11x) was initiated on suspicion of systematic fraud and the establishment of a criminal organization. The criminal investigation was carried out at the request of the Association for Consumer Protection Information (VKI) Vienna, which is also conducting five civil law class actions on behalf of 2,500 AWD plaintiffs with an amount in dispute of 40 million euros. All plaintiffs also joined the criminal complaint. After his resignation from Swiss Life, Maschmeyer also reduced his block of shares from 5.05 percent in Swiss Life Holding AG to less than 3 percent.

Name change in 2013

Swiss Life has recognized that it misjudged its business prospects when it bought AWD in 2007. On November 28, 2012, it was announced that the intangible asset had been revised from 1.34 billion to 765 million Swiss francs. At the same time, a new strategy was presented which, among other things, provided for optimizations in the corporate and sales strategy and was to replace the name AWD with Swiss Life Select. This was implemented at the beginning of April 2013.

Web links

Commons : Swiss Life Select Germany (Hanover)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cash hit list of financial sales 07/2019
  2. ↑ Object of the company according to the commercial register at the Hanover District Court HRB 55324 . Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ Imprint Swiss Life Select Deutschland GmbH - Registration number according to § 34d GewO: D-G38D-BSUOH-23. In: swisslife-select.de. Retrieved March 8, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Register of intermediaries: research. In: vermittlerregister.info. German Chamber of Commerce and Industry , accessed on March 8, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Federal Gazette (consolidated financial statements for the financial year from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017 of Swiss Life Deutschland Holding GmbH)
  6. ↑ Swiss Life: Press release: Survey shows: Germans felt more self-determined than before during the Corona lockdown , July 3, 2020 , accessed on August 19, 2020.
  7. ↑ The generous friend . Portrait of Carsten Maschmeyer on FAZ.NET from December 21, 2011.
  8. ^ Biography of Bettina Maschmeyer on her homepage
  9. ↑ AWD founder Maschmeyer is leaving Swiss-Life . Article in derwesten.de from December 8, 2011.
  10. ^ Albrecht Scheuermann: Financial broker: Jörg Jacob changes from AWD to Formaxx . In: haz.de , August 17, 2009. Retrieved December 26, 2011
  11. ↑ Michael Fröhlingsdorf, Markus Grill, Christoph Schwennicke: MONEY: In the middle of the largest lump of money . In: Der Spiegel . tape March 10 , 2011 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 15, 2018]).
  12. ↑ Michael Fröhlingsdorf, Markus Grill, Christoph Schwennicke: In the middle of the biggest lump of money . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 2011 ( online - March 5, 2011 ).
  13. ↑ Handelsblatt: Owner takes action at AWD , accessed on October 26, 2015
  14. ↑ Aktiencheck: hold AWD , accessed on October 26, 2015
  15. ↑ ntv: Maschmeyer is changing , accessed on October 26, 2015
  16. ↑ Handelsblatt: AWD founder Maschmeyer withdraws from Swiss Life , accessed on October 26, 2015
  17. ↑ Cash Online: AWD boss Behrens - You don't become a star overnight , accessed on October 26, 2015
  18. ↑ Hanover: Swiss-Life- instead of AWD-Platz  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 26, 2015@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.hannover.de  
  19. ↑ Handelszeitung: Jörg Arnold to be the new CEO of Swiss Life Germany , accessed on October 18, 2017
  20. ↑ Stern issue 6/2006
  21. ↑ Swiss Life sets cash compensation for AWD shareholders as part of the squeeze-out at EUR 30 per share and agrees profit transfer agreement on January 9, 2009 ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the Annual General Meeting on February 24, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.swisslife.com
  22. ^ AWD: Interim report as of March 31, 2009
  23. ↑ AWD Holding AG: Extraordinary General Meeting AWD Holding AG / General Meeting
  24. ^ Website of the Rostock Football Club 1895
  25. ↑ http://www.stiftung-zuversicht-fuer-kinder.org  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stiftung-zuversicht-fuer-kinder.org  
  26. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 19, 2016 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.bwv.de
  27. ↑ ik: IHK Cologne: Certified financial investment specialist IHK. Retrieved March 11, 2018 .
  28. ↑ Internet presence of the association of former AWD employees
  29. ↑ Focus: AWD investors fail before BGH . Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  30. ↑ Abendblatt: The court rejects four further lawsuits against AWD . Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  31. ↑ Handelsblatt: Lawsuits against AWD rejected . Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  32. ↑ Trade Regulations (GewO), Art. 34f . Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  33. ↑ IHK Hannover: New rules for real estate loan brokers according to § 34i GewO . Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  34. ↑ Finanzwelt.de: Swiss Life Select awarded the Kubus seal of approval for customer service . Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  35. ↑ TOP Service Germany 2016 ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2016 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. . Retrieved April 29, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.topservicedeutschland.de
  36. ↑ AWD: VKI with 6500 complaints for class action . diepresse.com. February 23, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  37. ^ Stiftung Warentest: List of tens of thousands of AWD victims test.de from March 9, 2011
  38. ↑ Björn Wichert: AWD: Confusion about taking over a competitor , article from October 8, 2008 in the insurance journal.
  39. ^ LG Hanover, judgment of June 30, 2009 , Az. 18 O 193/08.
  40. ↑ Court: AWD is not independent

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 34 ″  N , 9 ° 49 ′ 11 ″  E