The insurance industry is like the Bundesliga.

A look at the table of the market shares of all German insurers shows: The master always comes from Munich.

Just like FC Bayern's kickers are always at the top, Allianz is also nailed to the top among financial service providers.

Philipp Krohn

Editor in business, responsible for “People and Business”.

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And while the team from Säbener Strasse recently won their title 13 points ahead of RB Leipzig, the largest German insurer has also been able to expand its lead on the second-placed public insurer in the past seven years. While this stagnated at 10.4 percent across all divisions, Allianz has expanded its market share by a good 3 percentage points to 19.75 percent since 2013.

All of this shows a study by the Cologne Institute for Insurance Information and Economic Services (KIVI), a GmbH that was spun off from Cologne University two decades ago.

The latest version was published on Thursday.

If you take a closer look, you will ask yourself some interesting questions: Why are the market shares so rigid, although digital attackers have issued the slogan with the Insurtechs that one day will replace the established houses as leading providers of insurance protection?

m to switch to the picture of football again: The new, modern, fresh players like TSG Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig have also succeeded in showing the traditional clubs their limits.

There are also some interesting shifts among the established providers.

R + V benefits from their sales model

In addition to the alliance, the cooperative R + V has grown in recent years. The solid product offerings and sales via the bank counters of the Volksbank and Raiffeisenbanken have proven to be a successful model. With a 6.4 percent market share, the Wiesbaden-based group has made a jump of one percentage point since 2013. This is the first time that he has relegated the Italian Generali insurance company from third to fourth place.

Insurtechs are not catching up, but growth across a large customer base is possible. That is a first insight from the numbers. “Having customers and maintaining access to them are the decisive factors,” says Christian Schareck, who is responsible for the German insurance business at the consulting company KPMG. “This is what establishes the trust in traditional sales, which are ideally set up digitally.” The trust arises from a long-term relationship with the agent who acts for the insurer at the point of sale.

From Schareck's point of view, the market is currently changing.

Because insurance offers are increasingly elements of an “ecosystem” such as mobility, health, and the living environment, the distribution of these products will also change.

"If we succeed in combining solutions in the platform business, and if insurers are not the provider of the main product, then we will see shifts," he says.

This means that, under certain circumstances, a car manufacturer or the supplier of smart home technology may in future push the insurance industry aside and dominate customer access, but not necessarily insurtechs who translate the insurance process into the digital world.

Insurtechs haven't changed the market significantly yet

"If you take the comparison platform Check24 apart: Where is an Insurtech that is relevant and really changes the market?" Asks Christian Mylius, Managing Director of the consulting company EY Innovalue.

The problem with the attackers is that they are not yet close to the customer.

As a result, the acquisition costs are high.

"Insurtechs start from scratch and buy it together at high prices," he says.

A large portfolio like that of Allianz or R + V has the advantage that it earns money and there are opportunities to provide customers with new coverage concepts.

“A successful sales organization knows its customers extremely well, advises them on site and provides them with suitable solutions.

He stays with him.

Sales isn't bad per se, ”he says.

And there is another reason for the shifts. In times of low interest rates, insurers can use their portfolio to offer very attractive conditions for single-premium investments. “As a rating agency, we look to see whether this is detrimental to the company's existence and shakes the cover pool that ensures guarantees,” says Reiner Will. The business is not fundamentally dangerous. But the “appetite” for such risks fluctuates from year to year. Therefore the market shares are volatile. Allianz was already at 20.4 percent in 2019 and then reduced its single premiums. Because one thing also applies to large stocks: if they are calculated too generously, the risks can accumulate.