The flood in Bavaria and eastern Germany, five hailstorms and two major weather depressions were the dominant features of 2013 for Allianz Deutschland and its customers. The Munich insurer is paying out 1.2 billion euros for these claims alone – 570 million euros for flood damage and 631 million euros for hail and storm damage.
Customers filed nearly 400,000 claims for flood, hail and storm damage – 100,000 more than in a normal year. To help these people quickly and unbureaucratically, Allianz Deutschland set up five special claims support units during the May and June floods, dispatched 360 experts and claims adjusters and organized repairs itself for 2,800 buildings right away through the Allianz Handwerker Service. Local Allianz agents, even those affected by the flood themselves, made an enormous personal effort to help their customers deal with damages. Following the hailstorms in July and August, Allianz experts assessed 60,000 cars with hail damage in 63 collective inspections.
“Our customers found that in Allianz, they have a strong partner to stand beside them,” said Allianz Deutschland CEO Dr. Markus Riess. After reinsurance, the net outlay for natural disasters came to 651 million euros: 206 million euros for the floods and 445 million euros for storm and hail damage. Although these exceptionally high claims expenses impacted operating profit, the figure of 1.6 billion euros (2012: 2.0 billion euros) was only 400 million euros below the prior year, because the core business remained sound and profitable and was able in part to compensate for the large impacts. The combined ratio, which in property insurance is the ratio of expenses and losses to premiums earned, remained below the 100-percent mark, at 99.5 percent (96.8 percent).
Allianz Deutschland’s net income declined by 32.9 percent, to 1.1 billion euros.