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Accident and legal expenses insurance

Little movement in group accident insurance and calm waters in legal expenses insurance

Little movement in group accident insurance

Last year also saw no major changes in group accident insurance – and there are no signs of any.

deas has revised and further improved its own already broad-based terms and conditions.

It thus continues to offer its customers a market-leading set of contracts with comprehensive insurance solutions.

In the case of group contracts, negative developments can be seen in the way they are handled. Due to new legal developments (e.g. a judgment of the European Court of Justice regarding the admissibility and design of group contracts) and the increasingly strict protection of the personal data of co-insured persons, it is becoming more and more complicated.

Furthermore, tax law changes must be taken into account, for example with regard to the flat-rate taxation of contributions to group accident insurance by the employer.

 

Your deas solution

The market continues to offer high-quality coverage concepts in the field of accident insurance.

deas has taken this as an opportunity to adapt its own framework concept this year and to optimize it even further for your benefit. deas continuously monitors important legal developments, checks them for their relevance to customers and takes them into account in our solutions for you.



Calm waters in legal expenses insurance

Due to increased expenses of legal expenses insurers for claims payments, they often implemented premium increases at the end of 2023 within the possibilities of the premium adjustment clause (BAK) in standard legal expenses contracts.

The adjustments varied depending on the line of business and conditions – the transport sector was particularly affected. According to the German Insurance Association (GDV), the costs for disputes over exhaust gas manipulations have risen to around 1.5 billion euros since the scandal began in 2015. With an average amount in dispute per exhaust gas case of around 26,100 euros, high legal fees have been incurred. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is still having an impact.

In criminal and D&O legal expenses insurance, the tightening of laws in various areas that has already been implemented or is pending in the short term – for example, through the Corporate Sanctioning Act and the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act – will very likely lead to more proceedings. This could increase costs, which would have an impact on premiums in the medium term.

Manager legal expenses insurance and special cyber legal expenses covers are continuing to gain in importance, although they cannot replace separate D&O or cyber policies. In particular, the option of taking out individual policies whose sums insured cannot be used up by other co-insured persons makes these covers attractive.

 

Your deas solution

deas offers you legal expenses concepts that go beyond the market standard and are closely linked to other insurance lines, such as D&O and cyber. We have updated our own specially tailored policy conditions for criminal defense insurance to ensure that we always offer our customers the best possible insurance cover. We would be happy to explain the special features of our new, updated conditions to you.

Jörg Linnert