Germany Insurance Companies

Germany Insurance Companies
One thing about us Germans that you will learn quickly is that we don’t like to take risks. And what is better to minimize risks than to be insured against everything?

Germany is often renowned for having one of the best health care systems in the world with all the residents having access to comprehensive health insurance coverage. Around 15% of the population are insured via private health insurance plans and the rest have the mandatory or voluntary government health plans.

The three options for health insurance are:
✓ The government regulated publish health insurance system (GKV)
✓ Private health insurance from a German provider
✓ Private health insurance from an international insurance company

German Insurance
There are some insurances that are mandatory such as Sozialversicherung (Social Insurance) or Rentenversicherung ( Pension Insurance). You will be signed up for these the moment you have a working contract (not including internships or Minijobs) and there is nothing that you have to or can do.
✓ Haftpflichtversicherung – Liability Insurance
✓ Krankenversicherung – Health Insurance
✓ Kfz-Versicherung – Car Insurance
✓ Rechtschutzversicherung – Legal Expenses Insurance
✓ Lebensversicherung (Risiko) – Life Insurance
✓ Unfallversicherung – Accident Insurance
✓ Arbeitslosenversicherung – Unemployment Insurance

If you’re moving to Germany, one of the very first things you need to do is purchase health insurance. As with many major bureaucratic institutions in the country, things like filing taxes, getting a visa, choosing the right bank, etc., it can be complicated and even frustrating for newly arrived expats to figure out just what the deal is with health insurance.

Furthermore, in Germany it is required that everyone living in Germany is covered by an insurance for at least hospital and out-patient medical treatment, including pregnancy coverage and medical check-ups. Health care in general in Germany can be quite expensive due to increase in medical costs and demographic shifts. Below we provide you with the editor’s pick of the top value for money insurances companies in Germany, offering some of the most competitive rates.

This brief guide of insurers, insurance firms and companies in Germany includes insurance firms dealing with life insurance, re-insurance, commercial and liability insurance in Germany. Some of Germany’d insurance firms may be related to international insurance companies. Most of our insurance sites in Germany are in English. In general you will have no problem in finding English speaking employees in Germany’s insurance firms mentioned in this site.

Allianz
Allianz SE is a European financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. As of 2014, it is the world’s largest insurance company, the largest financial services group and the largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine, as well as the largest financial services company when measured by 2013 revenue. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

ARAG SE
ARAG SE is a European insurance group. ARAG stands for Allgemeine Rechtsschutzversicherungs Aktiengesellschaft. “SE” stands for “Societas Europaea”. Its headquarters are located in the ARAG-Tower in Düsseldorf-Mörsenbroich. The ARAG Group employs nearly 3,500 people worldwide. The Group reported premium income and revenues of over 1.469 billion Euro in 2011. ARAG is the largest family-owned German insurance group, with a portfolio of 5.8 million policies in the 2009 business year. The Group’s international legal insurance business accounts for 2.3 million policies alone, making it the second-largest legal insurer in the world.

AXA
Apart from the normal health insurance plans, this insurance company offers specific expat insurance plans. These are expatriate-tailored health insurances that focus on the needs of those living and working abroad.

Combined Insurance
Combined Insurance is a global provider of supplemental insurance, including accident insurance, life insurance and critical care coverage. Combined Insurance operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Pacific. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Deutsche Afrika-Linien/John T. Essberger Group of Companies
The Deutsche Afrika-Linien GmbH & Co./ John T. Essberger GmbH & Co. (DAL/JTE) is a German shipping company, based in Hamburg. It has a workforce of 1200–1300 world-wide and an annual turnover of about $350 million. The headquarters of Palmaille in Hamburg-Altona is situated on the Elbe River and consists of an 18th-century palace and several modern buildings. The company operates container and general cargo services between Europe, the Canary Islands, eastern and southern Africa, and Indian Ocean ports. Gas and chemical tankers are operated under the name Essberger Tankers. In addition, the group offers logistics and insurance services, as well as the travel agency ‘Hammonia Travel’.

DKV
DKV is an insurance and medical company that highly focuses on society and people, while also committed to sustainable development. This company offers the regular insurance services, while also offering a comprehensive medical directory, medical helplines, health and wellbeing clubs. The company ranks the high amongst the top insurers in Spain whilst having the support of Munich Re.

ERGO Group
ERGO (ERGO Group) is a group of insurance companies owned by Munich Re. ERGO is one of the largest insurance groups in Europe. It operates in over 30 countries, especially in Europe and Asia. In Europe, ERGO claims to be number 1 in the health and legal expenses insurance segments, and in its home market of Germany it is among the market leaders. It has over 40,000 full-time employees.

Generali Deutschland
Generali Deutschland AG (until 2008: AMB Generali) is a German holding company consisting of about 20 insurance companies. It is the second largest direkt insurance company in Germany after Allianz. Its headquarters is in Munich. Companies Generali Deutschland owns include Generali Versicherungen, AachenMünchener, CosmosDirekt and other. The company is fully owned by the Italian group Assicurazioni Generali.

Gothaer Group
The Gothaer Group is a German insurance company with circa 4.1 million members. Its core businesses are all insurance services. Gothaer Allgemeine Versicherungs AG customers include private clients and small- and medium-sized businesses. They offer their products to private and corporate customers. The customers are carefully secured in instances like: personal or group accidents, motor accidents, property damages, river shipping, robbery and burglary, fire, storm and water damages; Their product offer covers fields of property, health and life insurance. Gothaer insures industrial, business and private customers – with asset management and investment – forming another area of business. The head office is located in Cologne, Germany.
This is a German insurance company offering all types of health insurance services. Their customers mainly consist of private clients and small to medium sized business. In 2015, the group reported a Euro 134 million in net profit.

Hamburger Feuerkasse
Hamburger Feuerkasse (English: Hamburg Fire Office) is the first officially established fire insurance company in the world, and the oldest existing insurance enterprise available to the public, having started in 1676.

Hannover Re
Hannover Re (in German Hannover Rück) SE, with a gross premium of around €17.8 billion, is a European and third-largest reinsurance company in the world. Its headquarters is in Hannover, Germany.

Munich Re
Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company (German: Münchener Rück; Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft) is a reinsurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is one of the world’s leading reinsurers. ERGO, a Munich Re subsidiary, is the Group’s primary insurance arm. Munich Re’s shares are listed on all German stock exchanges and on the Xetra electronic trading system. Munich Re is included in the DAX index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Euro Stoxx 50, and other indices.

G. & J. E. Pinckernelle
G. & J. E. Pinckernelle is a Hamburg insurance broker firm, established on 1 December 1857 by the brothers Gustav (1821–1875) and Johann Ernst Pinckernelle (1827–1906). The company however traces its roots to the ship broker company E. F. Pinckernelle, established by their father Ernst Friedrich Pinckernelle (1787–1868) in Hamburg in 1818.

Signal Iduna
SIGNAL IDUNA is a German financial services company headquartered in Dortmund and Hamburg, Germany. Its core business and focus is insurance.

Talanx
Talanx is a German insurance company based in Hannover, specialising in provision of business-to-business insurance. As of 2016, it was a constituent of the MDAX trading index of German mid-cap companies. In September 2018 it was shifted from MDAX to SDAX.

VHV Group
VHV Group (United Hanoverian Insurance Group; in German: Vereinigte Hannoversche Versicherung) is a German insurance and reinsurance company based in Hanover, specialising in provision non-life and life insurance as well. Its core businesses are all insurance services. Today VHV Group operates primarily in Europe, Middle East and East Asia and especially in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria and Turkey. VHV is one of the twenty most important insurance companies in Germany, the leading German insurance company in the construction sector (market share of 23.6 percent) and one of the five major car insurance companies in Germany. Moreover, the VHV Group is the leading risk life insurer in Germany. VHV Group owns a network of subsidiaries, branches (e.g. Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Cologne) and representative offices with a total staff of roughly 3,100. Due to the earning power of the VHV-Group and its capitalization level Standard and Poor´s raised the rating on A+ Level in April 2017. In 2016 the VHV was able to expand its contractual figures to over 10 million insurance contracts for the first time.

Wüstenrot & Württembergische
Wüstenrot & Württembergische (W&W) is a German financial services group, based in Stuttgart founded in 1999. The Wüstenrot side of the business offers banking services. Württembergische offers insurance. W&W took over Karlsruher Versicherungsgruppe in 2005, thereby becoming one of Germany’s top 15 insurance groups.