On behalf of the consumer center in Hamburg, the University of Bamberg has conducted a study to investigate how much the loss due to premature termination of private pension and endowment insurances. On the basis of 1115 individuals who have applied for their terminated contracts to the Consumer Association of Hamburg, the losses were calculated. Here also the numbers of the General Federation of the insurance industry were considered.
It turned out that the so-called cash surrender value was often much lower than the payments. The projection showed that in the years 2001 to 2010, a lapse rate of 6% ??was present and that this coincided with a loss of 160 billion €. This represents an annual loss of 16 billion €.
The Consumer Advice Centre has been my experience that a premature termination of an investment contract, which is actually designed for decades, not the exception but the rule. The reasons for termination are manifold: unemployment, starting a business, wrong advice, real estate acquisition, illness, divorce or simply the realization that the signed contract was not good.


