Deposit premium

With guarantee assets are referred to in the insurance sector the portion of the assets of an insurance company, which serves to secure the claims of policyholders in the event of insolvency. It was introduced into German law due to European legislation, which previously had similar provisions in Germany already with the Institute of the cover pool.

Therefore, specific restrictions designed to ensure that, in a bankruptcy case the claims of policyholders corresponding assets in the asset pool are included apply to the asset pool.

Amount of guarantee assets

The level of security investments is governed by § 66 of the Insurance Supervision Act (VAG). The assurance fund must cover at least the sum of the following items:

• Outstanding claims and returns
• Rebates
• Unused premiums from insurance contracts dormant

Guarantee assets as bankruptcy protection

Due to the secure the claims of the insured in the event of insolvency, the guarantee assets is an internally separate from the other assets of the insurance undertaking special property which is beyond the reach of other creditors. In the case of insolvency, the claims arising from insurance contracts covered by them are satisfied from this first. Only if after that wealth is left, assets can also be used to cover other claims.

The securing the assets belonging assets are managed in an asset pool directory. In life insurance, the substitutive health insurance and private care insurance the securing assets is monitored by a trustee.

Cover pool as the predecessor of guarantee assets

By December 2003, the cover pool fulfilled the function of the guarantee assets. The cover pool was organized so that he offered the greatest possible security and profitability, but at the same time was liquidated at any time. Furthermore, it should be adequately diversified. He was managed by other asset separately. The strict regulatory requirements were monitored by a trustee. With the expansion of the positions to be covered (eg, payments and premium deposits were and a lot of the claims provision not covered by the cover pool ) was - even to avoid confusion - the renaming of this hedging instrument in securing assets.

Restricted Assets

The technical provisions and liabilities and deferred income, to the extent they arise from insurance contracts that form the restricted assets. As far as the restricted assets not already included in the asset pool, it makes the other restricted assets.

Investment rules

According to § 54b VAG the investments of unit- and index-linked life insurance are in a separate section of the reserve fund, the plant floor, to put in the values ​​in question.

In addition, the provisions of § 54 VAG and investment regulation adopted under it applicable to the restricted assets the system (and thus the guarantee assets ) ( AnlV ). Objectives of the investment are security and profitability for liquidity. The permissible forms of investment are finally described. It must be considered ( to various debtors ) the principles of mixture (quantitative limitation of individual investment types ) and scattering. The plant lists, inter alia, Regulation the permissible investment forms ( § 2 AnlV ), calls for the observance of special mixture ratios (§ 3 AnlV ) scattering contains provisions (§ 4 AnlV ) and requires compliance with the matching rules (§ 5 AnlV ).

Importance for policyholders

The special protection of assets in the amount of the insurer's obligations under insurance contracts causes a specific protection for the policyholder in the event of the insolvency of an insurer. The claims of policyholders, although identical to one another, so that rank ahead of all other creditors the extent that funds in the asset pool are included. However, insurers have except policyholders hardly creditors compared to those of the policyholder essentially claims.

Although the amount of guarantee assets roughly equivalent to the technical provisions, it does not provide the basis for specific power ratings, such as the surplus participation; The proportion of policyholders in investment income is not determined on the basis of the technical provisions associated security assets but on the basis of all assets of the insurer with special distribution keys. In the case of unit-linked life insurance to the value specified in the contracts, investments that are held for the account and risk of policyholders in accordance with the contractual agreements are indeed kept in the asset pool, but the contracts are directly related to the investment, not the guarantee assets. In this respect, the guarantee assets used solely to hedge in the event of insolvency. The income generated by the assets stored in the fuse investments capital gains are usually not even recorded separately.