Insurance intermediary

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Insurance intermediaries in the insurance industry are traders entrusted with the brokering of insurance contracts .

General

The insurance broker is a generic term for the insurance agent and the insurance broker , both of which deal with the brokering of insurance contracts ( Section 59 (1) VVG ). The insurance agents broker insurance contracts on behalf of an insurance company , while the insurance brokers carry out their brokering activities on behalf of the policyholder and while safeguarding his interests. Insurance intermediaries are to be distinguished from insurance advisors .

Approval and designation

The insurance brokerage business has been subject to a permit since May 22, 2007 ( Section 34d GewO ). Approval and supervision are carried out throughout Germany by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IHK). The Chamber of Industry and Commerce responsible for the intermediary grants permission if certain requirements are met.

Furthermore, an intermediary register was set up at the DIHK , in which every intermediary must be entered. The application for registration must be submitted to the IHK responsible for the agent. The entry is only made if the agent has a permit according to § 34d GewO or is exempt from it. Both the permit and the entry in the register are generally required from May 22, 2007; however, there was a transition period until December 31, 2008 for agents who were already active before January 1, 2007.

It is an administrative offense to act as an intermediary without the required permission.

Admission requirements

The prerequisite is a business registration and a special business license ( § 34d GewO). An insurance broker must meet certain requirements for this. He must

  1. be personally reliable ,
  2. live in orderly financial circumstances ,
  3. provide evidence of financial loss liability insurance and
  4. Proof of expertise .

reliability

He must not have been convicted of any relevant criminal law in the last 5 years prior to filing the application.

Orderly financial circumstances

Furthermore, his financial circumstances must be in order, which is usually the case if no insolvency proceedings have been opened against his assets or have been dismissed for lack of assets and he has not submitted the affidavit to the local court responsible for him - the enforcement court.

Liability insurance

He must also prove that he has a financial loss liability insurance with a certain minimum coverage.

Expertise

Finally, proof of the required expertise is required. The competence can be proven in different ways, in particular through

Anyone who was already active in the field of insurance brokerage or advice before September 1, 2000 and this is uninterrupted until the application is submitted ("old-hands rule") also has the necessary expertise. Detailed provisions can be found in the Insurance Brokerage Ordinance , which also came into force on May 22, 2007.

Operator types

In the following sections, the different requirements with regard to advice are presented for both types of intermediaries (brokers and agents). These requirements have been codified in many areas by the new brokerage law that has been in force since May 22, 2007 and must be met when the law comes into force on May 22, 2007.

The representative is commissioned by one or more insurers to broker insurance contracts on the basis of an agency contract and receives a commission from them for the brokered business . He is a vicarious agent of the insurer as an agency contract. In contrast, an insurance broker works exclusively on behalf of his customer and is regularly authorized by the latter to conclude or terminate insurance contracts on his behalf. He is an ally of his client and has strict liability for his work. His remuneration for brokered business is mostly in the form of brokerage, which is paid to him by the insurance company, in some cases as a fee agreed with the customer.

As part of the implementation of the EU Brokerage Directive (2002/92 / EC), new regulations were inserted in the Federal Republic of Germany on May 22, 2007, among other things, in the Industrial Code (GewO) and the Insurance Contract Act (VVG), which provide a clear definition for bring the mediator types. In the VVG, the insurance intermediary is now divided into insurance agents and insurance brokers.

The agent must provide the customer with so-called initial information in text form at the first business contact , from which

  • Name and business address of the agent,
  • Broker register number (along with details of where this is to be checked, namely at the DIHK in the broker register,
  • Intermediary status (broker or representative),
  • Arbitration bodies for the dispute

result ( Section 11 (1) VersVermV ).

Insurance agent

Insurance agents look after existing customer relationships and also build new customer relationships. One-company representatives are still the most common insurance brokers to be found today.

An insurance agent (also known as an exclusive agent ) is normally a commercial agent according to Section 84 of the German Commercial Code . Typically, they act as a tied agent for an insurance company and broker the insurance business of that one company to customers. The intermediary has an obligation towards the insurance company - regulated in the agency contract between the intermediary and the insurer.

The insurance agent is acc. Section 84 ff. Of the German Commercial Code (HGB). He can act as a single company representative, multiple bound representative or multiple representative. Insurance agents are fundamentally obliged to provide advice on specific occasions , but they only have to use the insurance companies and their products with which they have entered into a contractual relationship. These insurers must be named to the customer.

The insurance agent is the vicarious agent of the insurer, who is therefore largely liable for the latter and who has to account for his knowledge.

The following questions are often dealt with in an agency contract between an insurance agent and an insurance company:

  • Exclusivity,
  • Area of ​​activity: inventory and / or area protection,
  • Cost subsidies such as for office or advertising costs,
  • Equipment and requirements for a shop office,
  • Assumption of liability.

Multiple agent

A modification of the insurance agent is the multiple agent who works for several insurance companies. He picks out a number of companies to broker the insurance business for. The multiple agent cannot be called an independent insurance intermediary, even if it has a large number of product partners to choose from.

Insurance broker

The insurance broker (regulated in § 93 ff. HGB) is also an agent for insurance cover, but has a separate contract with the customer - a brokerage contract . In contrast to the insurance agent or multiple agent, he has no permanent bond with an insurance company. As a rule, an insurance broker, unless he works with a broker pool , has around 8-10 product partners in the insurance sector. He is obliged to the customer and not to the insurer. The insurance broker is obliged to always offer the customer the best possible product. A special form of adhesion is derived from this. Payment is made in the form of a brokerage fee , which is part of the insurance premium and is paid to the broker by the insurer.

As in the past, the insurance broker has to recommend the right offer to the customer from a sufficiently large number of insurers and products to meet his wishes and needs. He has to justify this advice - like the insurance agent, see above. The law essentially stipulates what is already valid today through case law and commercial practice . The requirements of "best advice" as we know them in Great Britain will not exist in Germany, nor have they existed yet. Rather, the standard is "suitable advice"; this means that an insurance solution that is appropriate to the wishes and needs of the customer is recommended.

The insurance broker usually works within the framework of a brokerage contract. In principle, he acts on behalf of the customer and is also assigned to his sphere of interest. The brokerage contract regulates how far the power of attorney extends and in what framework the selection of the offer should be made. The broker's duties to provide information and to clarify risks can be regulated to a limited extent within the framework of this contract. Today it is common practice to limit oneself to those insurers that are licensed in Germany in order to achieve a certain degree of legal certainty . In principle, the trustee ruling of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) of May 1985, which forms the basis for brokerage, is not invalidated by the new law.

Product accessory insurance intermediaries

Furthermore, car dealerships , credit institutes ( allfinanz ) and mail order companies are allowed to offer insurance and thus act as intermediaries.

Differentiation from insurance advisor

The insurance advisor who exclusively advises the client on insurance issues on a fee basis is not an insurance broker .

tasks

As part of the consultation, the wishes and needs (better: the objectively existing needs ) of the customer must be determined. The customer is then to be advised as required by the complexity of the insurance product, the person and the customer's situation. According to the law, the level of the insurance premium should also be a measure of the requirements for advice. This is certainly a questionable criterion which, as a mediator, should not be relied on in case of doubt. The advice given to the customer must ultimately be justified so that the customer can later understand why he decided on a specific insurance product.

The advice just presented is to be reproduced in its basic features in advice documentation , which the customer must receive in text form at the latest before the conclusion of the contract.

education

In principle, an examination to become an insurance specialist is sufficient as a qualification. Neither training nor a school leaving certificate is required for this. However, there are different training occupations and opportunities. There is training to become a business administrator for insurance and finance and further training to become a specialist for insurance and finance .

In 2012, 254,609 (as of September 28, 2012) insurance brokers were registered with the IHK, but their number has declined in recent years.

199,421 insurance brokers are currently registered in Germany (as of July 1, 2019), but the average age of insurance brokers is now 49 years. Therefore, in the years to come, many of the brokers will retire in the coming years, including some who have not made timely succession arrangements.

compensation

With all of these forms of intermediary, the insurance companies pay a brokerage fee or commission . However, the companies charge the customer for this, which means that the customer pays the intermediary or broker. Here it is claimed that a consultation or the like is free of charge for the customer. This is true for certain areas (e.g. intermediaries), where advice is initially free for the customer. Certain brokerage fees are required from brokers, which are then (perhaps only partially) charged again when the contract is concluded. However, this is different and should be clarified beforehand by the customer. Not all advice that costs money is worth the money.

commission

The insurance intermediary lives from the following sources of income:

  • Initial commission ,
  • Inventory commission (also called follow-up commission),
  • Bonuses from so-called competitions. The insurance brokers must conclude a prescribed number of contracts with a certain premium volume within a certain period of time in order to qualify for the competition. The best get a bonus,
  • Grants , e.g. B. Development grants in the first few years or guaranteed grants due to a low customer base.

The commissions are passed on to the policyholders and included in the contributions. In the case of certain types of insurance such as life insurance , these costs must be shown explicitly.

fee

Fee-based financial advice is called fee-based advice . Insurance brokers can advise commercial customers on a fee basis. Some insurance brokers also offer their services to private customers for a fee. The latter is controversial, since the entire consultation costs are difficult to understand for the consumer.

Professional liability

According to the new legal regulation, representatives and brokers are responsible for incorrect advice and insufficient fulfillment of the requirements described above.

As part of the new regulation of the brokerage law, professional liability is prescribed for every broker, which must meet certain requirements, for example with regard to the amount of coverage and the scope. This obligation exists from May 22, 2007. As of this date, insurance companies may not accept business from intermediaries who do not have such liability insurance . For agents who were already active before January 1, 2007, a transition period until December 31, 2008 applies.

The single company representative as well as the multiple tied agent can be signed off by an insurer. The insurer assumes the liability for which a professional liability insurance would otherwise have to be responsible.

Interest groups

The IHK is the legal representation of interests. There are a number of other associations. The association of interests of insurance agents of a certain insurance company is called house associations. Important professional associations of insurance brokers are the Association of German Insurance Brokers (VDVM), the Federal Association of German Insurance Merchants (BVK) and the AfW - Federal Association of Financial Services .

International

The brokerage law applies in all EU member states .

See also

literature

  • Peter Reiff : Insurance broker law in transition . VVW Karlsruhe, 2006, ISBN 3-89952-283-4 .
  • Peter Reiff: The law to reorganize insurance brokerage law . VVW Karlsruhe, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89952-343-0 .
  • Matthias Beenken, Hans-Ludger Sandkühler: The new Insurance Broker Act: The implementation of the EU Insurance Broker Directive . VVW Karlsruhe, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89952-314-0 .
  • SusanneGamm, Manfred Sohn: Insurance broker law: legal implications . VVW Karlsruhe, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89952-320-1 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. § 1 VersVermV
  2. § 4 VersVermV
  3. www.vermittlerregister.info
  4. BGH, judgment of May 22, 1985, Az .: IVa ZR 190/83 = BGHZ 94, 356
  5. jscheinpflug: Statistics Broker Directory - German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Retrieved July 19, 2019 .
  6. jscheinpflug: Statistics Broker Directory - German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Retrieved July 19, 2019 .
  7. Christian Schnell: Insurance broker: The desperate search for the royal road. Retrieved July 19, 2019 .
  8. Broker Barometer 2019 - Broker Buy. In: - Broker purchase. Retrieved on July 19, 2019 (German).