Which ones are completed most often

Protection is becoming more important

This insurance is becoming increasingly popular

Germans are playing it safe and taking out more insurance. But one division cannot benefit from the increased demand.

Be it house, car or health: In a world that is increasingly perceived as dangerous, many Germans seem to be placing greater emphasis on security in their everyday lives. The prevalence of certain insurance policies has increased significantly in recent years, while others are becoming less important. This is shown by a current evaluation by the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV) based on the income and consumer sample published every five years by the Federal Statistical Office.

“People in Germany attach great importance to safety, which is particularly evident in property and casualty insurance,” said GDV Managing Director Jörg Asmussen, commenting on the result. Above all, short-term and concrete risks are now more protected by people.

Private liability insurance has become increasingly important. This can be used to insure against damage to third parties that could result in costs that threaten your existence. Almost 90 percent of Germans now have a corresponding policy – that is significantly more than five years ago (82.8 percent). Insurers recorded higher demand, particularly among younger people.

Motor vehicle insurance (81.2 percent) and household contents insurance (78 percent) are also widespread among the population.

The spread of legal protection insurance has also increased significantly. Almost every second German (49.8 percent) is now insured against legal disputes – that’s 3.5 percentage points more than in 2018. “Risks are being taken increasingly seriously, broader basic coverage is becoming a matter of course,” says Asmussen. However, private supplementary health insurance, such as sick pay, travel health insurance, supplementary hospital or supplementary dental insurance, experienced the greatest increase in importance. Additional dental insurance is particularly popular.

While property insurance has seen significantly greater demand in recent years, the situation with personal insurance is ambiguous. On the one hand, the prevalence of occupational disability (26.7 percent) and term life insurance (18.7 percent) has increased in recent years. On the other hand, insurers are becoming less important when it comes to retirement provision.

Less than 28 percent of Germans still have endowment life insurance – that’s around four percentage points less than five years earlier. These products are not considered to be particularly profitable and have faced strong competition in recent years from fixed-term deposits and ETF savings plans. Other retirement provision products are also having an increasingly difficult time: the prevalence of state-subsidized Riester and Rürup insurance fell by one percentage point to 27 percent.