The zero interest rate policy of recent years has now been left behind by the finance and insurance industry. Interest rates are rising at an unusually rapid pace in order to achieve price stability again as soon as possible. The main problem at present is high inflation, reminiscent of the early 1970s.
Against this background, many interest-bearing securities are a negative business in real terms. This also applies above all to insurance products for retirement provision. But where do people live who are considered to be "frequently insured", i.e. who have many policies?
New record for insurance density
A current statistic makes you stop: In 2021, for example, more money was spent on insurance in Germany than ever before. As reported by the portal Versicherungsbote, the insurance density rose to more than € 2,700, as determined by the GDV (German Insurance Association). Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of about 2 percent. Insurance density is the ratio of gross premiums collected by primary insurers to the number of inhabitants. Life insurance continues to account for the largest share, followed by property and casualty products. A significant increase was observed above all in private health insurance .
The most common insurances are often not that expensive: The top 3 are private liability, car insurance and household insurance, as Capital.de lists. But in comparison, the Germans are not the European champions when it comes to insurance, as is often assumed. The German Insurance Association (GDV) also points out that penetration (i.e., insurance expenditure as a percentage of a country's gross national product) is below the average for the G7 countries and that the potential of the industry is therefore not being fully exploited.
Market Data Finance and Insurance
Let's take a look at our Finance and Insurance market data package. Among other things, we distinguish the provision-oriented financial customer. This target group is therefore very interesting for the insurance industry. They have a medium to large-sized account, especially fixed-term deposits and savings accounts. There is interest in direct banking and they tend to own two investment vehicles with a high affinity for real estate. Two or more home savings contracts are usually taken out, or fixed-interest forms of savings are generally preferred. Ownership of shares is underrepresented, but interest in acquiring shares is definitely planned.
In total, we distinguish six different financial types as well as affinity for insurance and private as well as voluntary statutory health insurance. Matching and exclusively trustworthy market data and geodata provide financial service providers with valuable information about the wishes and motivations of their target group. Where do the people with the highest affinity for pension products live?
Affinity for insurance products
On average , every household owns about six insurance policies, according to the GDV. That's quite a lot. In our "Banks and Insurance" data package, we characterize, among others, the household type "The Frequently Insured" with five or more policies, corresponding to households with a high to very high affinity for insurance products.
Where can you find this type of household geographically? Our map (PDF) shows the nationwide distribution at the 5-digit zip code area level. Affinity for many insurance policies is shown for households in 9 classes, with a value of 1 representing very low affinity and 9 representing very high affinity. Households in classes 7 (high) to 9 (very high) were combined and related to the total number of households. Thus, the proportion of households with high affinity is shown.
As the map shows, pension-oriented people - to put it simply - are mainly found in regions outside metropolitan areas and conurbations, rather in rural areas such as the Eifel and Hunsrück, Lower Bavaria, the Thuringian Forest and the Erzgebirge, or even in Emsland.
Also shown are zip codes with an above-average affinity for investment certificates (index values above 115, corresponding to more than 15% above the national average). These include shares in investment funds and fund certificates, i.e. speculative investments. Households of this financial type are mainly found in the vicinity of cities with high purchasing power in the western federal states.