Termination of Freelax pension insurance with Standard Life.
April 19, 2013 | 35,00 EUR | answered by Jan Wilking
Hello. In August 2010, I took out the deferred annuity insurance Freelax from Standard Life Insurance and have paid in around 5,700 euros so far. Now I am considering canceling this insurance – because I think, firstly, I have one insurance too many and secondly, I may not have chosen the best one considering the performance. Upon inquiry, I have now been informed of a current surrender value of around 3,000 euros. Question: Should I be satisfied with this or, to put it bluntly, is there more to be gained? What would be the next steps? I have legal expenses insurance. Thank you in advance for your advice and information.
Dear inquirer,
I am happy to answer your inquiry, taking into account the description of your situation and your contribution as follows:
Insurance companies regularly use the so-called Zillmer method to calculate the surrender value, which means that the initial contributions are not saved, but the premium in the first few years is offset against administration costs, brokerage fees, and commissions. Depending on the contractual arrangement, it may even lead to even lower surrender values in the event of termination in the first years of the contract, as is the case with you.
The Federal Court of Justice has ruled in a recent judgment of 25.07.2012, IV ZR 201/10, with reference to a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of 15.02.2006 (1 BvR 1317/96), that provisions in the General Insurance Conditions for deferred annuities that provide for the offsetting of acquisition costs with the policyholder's initial contributions may constitute an unreasonable disadvantage to the policyholder and are therefore invalid under § 307 para. 2 No. 2, para. 1 sentence 1 BGB.
This is justified by the fact that the formation of assets, including the surrender value, is the aim of an insurance contract and is subject to the protection of Art. 14 para. 1 of the German Basic Law (GG). In the opinion of the judges, this contract objective may not be jeopardized by the Zillmer method in the event of premature termination of the contract. The BGH also considers clauses that concern the calculation of the surrender value and simultaneous deduction in the event of premature termination of the contract to be invalid due to a violation of the transparency requirement under § 307 para. 1 sentence 2 BGB.
Without knowing the details of your specific insurance contract, it cannot be conclusively determined whether the relevant clauses in your contract are invalid and therefore a higher surrender value would be justified. You should ask the insurance company to disclose the calculation of the surrender value – if there are clauses referring to the offsetting of acquisition costs, cancellation deductions, or similar, it may be advisable to engage a colleague specializing in insurance law to examine the contract and a possible claim for additional payment (possibly after prior coverage request and approval by legal expenses insurance).
I hope to have provided you with a helpful initial orientation. If you have any doubts, please use the free follow-up function.
Please note that in the context of an initial consultation without knowledge of all circumstances, I cannot provide a final opinion. If you wish to have a conclusive assessment of the situation, I recommend contacting a lawyer and discussing the situation with them after reviewing all documents.
Yours sincerely
