If the maximum interest rate falls, the wheat is separated from the chaff

The average life insurance saver calls the secure interest on the savings portion of the life insurance premium the guaranteed interest rate, which will last be a maximum of 1.25 percent p.a. in 2015. This limit is the maximum actuarial interest rate used to calculate the actuarial reserves, above which no life insurer is currently […]

Loss of purchasing power, demographics and low interest rates destroy supply dreams

“The safest thing about the state pension is the pension gap.” (André Kostolany) If we compare the prospects of past and present pensioners with those of future generations of pensioners, we find that over the decades the legislator has roughly halved the provision via the German Pension Insurance Federation (DRV) in relation to the last […]

Quo vadis guaranteed interest rate?

Why brokers have to pay attention to investment performance is explained by lawyer Johannes Fiala and private health insurance expert Peter A. Schramm in the series on frequent or typical consulting errors in the brokerage of private health insurance. To the point � Unlike in life insurance, the maximum actuarial interest rate in private health […]

Insurance Quotes: Sample bills between non-binding and liability

– Wrong understanding creates error – wrong advice creates personal liability -.   Risk and return Insurance customers and intermediaries like to think that sample calculations tell them something about what the insurer (most likely) expects as the outcome of an investment in an insurance contract. That’s why prospective insurance customers also like to ask […]

Choice between plague and cholera

The Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof, BFH) has ruled that the VAT-exempt activity as an insurance intermediary consists not only in seeking customers but also in bringing them together with the insurer. As the Federal Fiscal Court stated in its ruling of 6 September 2007 (Ref. V R 50/05), the terms insurance agent and insurance broker […]

Eine wichtige Information für Arbeitnehmer mit betrieblicher Altersversorgung und für Betriebsräte

Date: 27 April 2007 at 8:48 am Category: Other interesting contributions Author: Albrecht Müller A recent ruling by the Munich Regional Labour Court confirms that the offsetting of acquisition costs in the first few years – in particular by means of “Zillmerung” – is impermissible in occupational pension schemes with deferred compensation. (Zillmerisation means that […]

Double holds better

If the boss drops out due to health problems, it can become critical for a GmbH, because often there is no occupational disability pension for managing directors despite pension commitments. At present, the typical medium-sized GmbH is increasingly finding itself in a crisis situation because a managing director suddenly becomes incapacitated. An isolated incident? No, […]

Debt interest after cessation of rental activity

After giving up the rental activity, interest may be payable on loans. If, for example, maintenance expenses (so-called immediately deductible income-related expenses) have been financed with this during the rental phase, the debt interest can be deducted as subsequent income-related expenses in the rental income. Attention: Condition is that it concerns such expenditures which still […]

Betriebliche Altersversorgung – Facts&Fiction: Support fund – Investment fraud with built-in employer liability ?

*by Johannes Fiala, Lawyer (Munich), MBA Financial Services (Univ.Wales), MM (Univ.), Certified Financial and Investment Advisor (A.F.A.), EC Expert (C.I.F.E.), Lecturer (Univ. of Cooperative Education), Banker (www.fiala.de ) and Dipl.-Math. Peter A. Schramm, Actuary DAV (Diethardt), Actuarial Expert (www.pkv-gutachter.de ) “Smile and be happy, it could be worse!” And I laughed and was glad – […]

Liability traps when terminating life insurance policies – entitlement to a higher surrender value in the event of low interest rates

*by Peter Schramm (www.pkv-gutachter.de) and Johannes Fiala www.fiala.de) Until 1994, guaranteed surrender values were paid out in German life insurance in the event of cancellation, which were calculated from the actuarial reserve according to the business plan less cancellation deductions. Fair values instead of guaranteed surrender values With the deregulation of 1994, the guaranteed surrender […]