January 26, 2021 – From the customer’s point of view, ten disability insurers and eight private health insurance providers offer a “very good” benefit regulation. This is the result of an investigation by Servicevalue on behalf of the magazine Focus-Money. A total of almost 59,000 customer votes on over 630 product providers in around 20 sectors were collected.
The Servicevalue GmbH has in cooperation with the magazine Focus-Money the claims and benefits settlement of insurance companies from the customer’s perspective under the microscope. The behavior in around 20 divisions was put to the test.
Methodology of the investigation
For the online survey carried out in December 2020, companies were registered to evaluate Panelisten invited. There are socio-demographic characteristics of these, “so that they can be controlled in a representative manner,” explains Servicevalue.
The survey participants were asked to evaluate the settlement of the claim or benefit from the product provider for which they reported an insured event in the past 36 months. A total of 58,948 (previous year: 58,263) customer opinions on the regulatory practice of 633 (615) insurance companies and coverage concept providers came together.
Five-point rating scale
Insurance customers were able to rate the regulation of a provider on a five-point scale from one (= “excellent”) to five (= “bad”). The analysis company calculated the rankings in the individual insurance branches from the unweighted mean of all customer ratings for each provider.
All companies that achieved an above-average value on the overall level received a “good”. Anyone who was above the average of the “good” companies received a “very good”.
Information on the number of votes per company and per division is provided by Study documents (PDF, 250 KB) cannot be found. Specific data on regulatory behavior – such as the speed of the reaction or the payment or the scope of regulation – were also not collected in the context of the study.
The market research company asked the survey participants only one general question due to the large scope of the investigation.
The best disability insurance regulators
From the personal insurance sector, the categories of occupational disability (BU) and private health insurance (PKV) were queried. Of the 35 (previous year: 38) BU product providers offered for selection, a good one in four achieved a “very good” rating.
Almost every third company was rated “good” according to the service value evaluation. According to the customer’s opinion, the remaining 40 percent did not offer any above-average performance regulation.
Belonging to the top group in BU performance practice (in alphabetical order)
- Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG,
- Cosmos Life Insurance Company,
- Generali Germany Life Insurance AG (formerly Aachenmünchener, July 2nd, 2020),
- HDI Lebensversicherung AG,
- Provincial Rheinland Lebensversicherung AG,
- R + V Lebensversicherung AG,
- Signal Iduna life insurance aG,
- Swiss Life AG, branch for Germany,
- Volkswohl Bund Lebensversicherung aG and
- WWK life insurance aG
Signal Iduna is now one of the top providers in terms of regulation. They dropped out of the top group of the previous year (VersicherungsJournal 13.1.2020) Canada Life Assurance Europe plc, branch for Germany as well as the Hansemerkur Life Insurance AG.
The best regulators in private health insurance
In the private health insurance (PKV) category, 31 (previous year: 28) product providers are listed in the study documents. A good one in four of them received a “very good” rating, and just under third received a “good” rating. According to the customer’s opinion, the remaining half of the companies regulate on average at best.
The best rated private health insurance providers include (in alphabetical order):
Arag and DKV have improved into the top group. Last year’s top providers were only rated “good” Inter Krankenversicherung AG as well as the SV Sparkasse Insurance.
Further investigations into the BU power regulation
Studies on the regulation of benefits in BU insurance has recently been carried out alongside the Premiumcircle Germany GmbH (17.4.2018) also the Franke and Bornberg GmbH (7/8/2020) carried out. Due to differently sized samples and other methodological approaches and definitions, the results of the investigation sometimes differ significantly from one another.
Also the General Association of the German Insurance Industry eV (GDV) publishes selected figures on claims settlement in this division at irregular intervals (25.9.2020, 22.4.2020, 18.11.2019, 7.6.2019, 26.11.2018).
An investigation, among other things, on claims settlement in the occupational disability insurance, also took place in the spring Vema insurance broker Genossenschaft eG carried out. The around 3,200 Vema partner companies at the time were questioned as part of a so-called quality survey (July 20, 2020, July 1, 2020).
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