A new vehicle, your own business or an investment with higher returns: There are many reasons for the termination of life insurance. One of the options is to sell the insurance policy. However, insured persons should compare the offers in advance.

The international financial crisis has left its mark on the secondary life insurance market in Germany. While the value of policies sold in 2008 was still around 500 million euros, in 2009 only about 100 million euros were realized. However, in view of the generally better outlook, the Federal Association of Investments in the secondary life insurance market (BVZL) is now confident again. Already last year, the purchase volume rose according to recent estimates to a total of 150 million euros. Tendency continues to rise.

Selling life insurance is basically easy: the insured offers his contract to a buyer. This pays the insured for a previously agreed sum and then continues the contract until the end of the term. The payment including the final surplus then goes to the buyer.

Termination is the “worst solution”

For consumers who urgently need money, this way can be quite useful. “The worst solution is always to terminate the contract prematurely,” says Peter Grieble of the consumer center Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart. Because this is usually a loss for the insured. The reason: commissions and fees are retained by the insurance in full, the repurchase value reduced accordingly.

But before a policy is resold, savers should look at the alternatives, advises Susanne Meunier of Stiftung Warentest in Berlin. “You can also mortgage your life insurance,” explains the financial expert. Your own insurance company or a specialized company will then grant the insured a loan that can be gradually repaid. The advantage: the insurance protection remains in full.

Make insurance free of charge

Another option for damaging customers is to make the contract non-contributory. “You simply do not pay monthly contributions,” explains Meunier. This, however, affects the return. The best way consumers should expect their insurance company to calculate the consequences of this step.

Get several offers before selling

If policyholders decide to sell their policy, they should be well informed. Although most providers are serious in the opinion of Stiftung Warentest. Nevertheless, investors should critically review the offers. If a buyer promises very high sums for a policy, please be careful, says Peter Grieble. Because usually in this case initially only a small amount will be paid and the remainder will be transferred in annual installments. “That’s risky,” says Grieble. After all, no one knows if the buyer still exists in ten years.

In any case insureds should seek several offers, advises also Ingo Wichelhaus, board member of the BVZL. Different buyers rated the same policy differently. Influencing factors include the financial strength of the insurer, in which the policy was concluded or the previous term of the contract.

However, not every life insurance contract is suitable for sale. According to the BVZL, the contract should have a certain residual maturity and a minimum buyback value. “This frame should be as far as possible”, it says in a guide of the association. Ideal is a buyback value of 10,000 euros or more.

Keep death benefits

It is important for the insured to make sure that the death protection is maintained despite the sale, explains Susanne Meunier. This means that if the insured person dies before the end of the term, the heirs receive a death benefit from the buyer of the policy. However, all costs incurred until then, such as purchase price and current premiums, are deducted. “That’s a clean thing then,” says Meunier.

The City of Bullas has a debt of more than nine million euros "inherited from the previous Government"

If everything goes according to plan, Greece will be without aid again for the first time in ten years next year. The rest of Europe is also up. An overview and overview.

Greece is still facing painful reforms

For Greece, which has long been at risk of bankruptcy, the end of the financial crisis has never been so close. The economy is growing, new debt is falling and unemployment is also falling. In 2018, economic growth of 2.5 percent is expected. Unemployment is expected to fall to 20 percent by the end of 2018. Just two years ago, it was 25 percent.

In the heyday of the crisis in the summer of 2015, international financiers and Athens had agreed on the third aid package of up to
86 billion euros by mid-2018 agreed. In return, the country must implement a long list of austerity and reform measures. Tsipras, who was elected in January 2015 with the promise to defy the austerity measures, is now eager to meet all requirements as quickly as possible.

But the last reforms that Athens has to implement are very painful. The banks must devote themselves to the bad loans in their balance sheets. Homes and homes of debtors who do not pay could be confiscated and come under the hammer.

Debt and mass emigration

Athens still has a mountain of debt of about 180 percent of GDP. Tax increases, pension cuts, part-time, lack of prospects and emigration are reality. It is estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 mostly young and well-educated Greeks have emigrated over the last four years.

Almost two-thirds of all Greek workers do not have a full-time job. Especially young people often work for less than 400 euros a month. Many of them are therefore on the verge of poverty and depend on the support of their families.

Elsewhere, things get better faster

Other former crisis countries such as the Republic of Cyprus are now off the hook. After the severe banking crisis of 2013, the island republic is back on track and can finance itself with its own resources. The rescue program was with a volume of only ten billion euros and much fewer editions, however, not comparable to that for Greece. When Spain left the bailout program in November 2013, the country had used just 40 billion of the originally approved 100 billion euros for the banking sector.

Four years later, the country is doing quite well again – even though the Catalan crisis is worrying. After the independence referendum in the strong economic region and the disempowerment of the regional government, the government in Madrid had corrected its growth expectations for the coming year from 2.6 to 2.3 percent in October. The unemployment rate in Spain had recently fallen to 16.4 percent, the lowest level in about nine years.

Generally good prospects

For the entire Eurozone, the prospects are at least at first glance as good as long. The EU Commission expects GDP growth in the 19 member states to reach 2.2 percent in 2017 and 2.1 percent in 2018. The currency area could provide the strongest economic growth in more than a decade. At the same time, the debt ratio – the ratio of government debt to GDP –
2017 to 89.3 and 2018 to 87.2 percent decline.

However, according to the EU Commission, the recovery is not yet on a firm footing. For economic growth, accompanying measures such as the ECB are still necessary, according to the Brussels authority. Even from the point of view of ECB President Mario Draghi, the eurozone is still dependent on the cheap money of the central bank.

Debt ratio in Italy is very high

Above all, Italy is worried about Italy. The country has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU at around 130%, and there are many bad loans on banks’ balance sheets. Should the Eurozone heavyweight seriously falter, the euro rescue fund ESM, which recently shouldered the rescue programs, could be overtaxed.

Against this backdrop, the reform debate on Economic and Monetary Union should gain momentum. One of the biggest controversy is the planned introduction of a common bank deposit guarantee system. Germany is banning itself, as the banks here in Germany fear that in case of doubt they will be held liable for institutions in other countries. However, many experts argue that even the distribution of liability risks on European shoulders would contribute to more security in future crises.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) last signaled at the Euro Summit in mid-December possible compromise. In the coming months, Germany and France also want to agree on common positions for the Eurozone reform. For Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, the situation is clear: “We should not wait for the next crisis.”

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News Protzbau in Limburg: Why every German has funded the bishop

Wednesday, 16.10.13 , written by Juliane Wellisch The waste of money at the bishopric of Limburg has been causing a stir for days. It’s not just Catholics who wonder how their church tax is handled. Even Otto normal citizen addresses the topic. For even those who are not church members, pay through their taxes money to the church. But what does the state and taxpayers pay annually to the two major

In Limburg, church members are unlikely to feel like donations

The episcopal see in Limburg excited since days the minds. Because instead of the originally planned 5.5 million euros, the construction of the bishop’s residence will now cost at least 31 million euros. Other estimates even assume a total cost of more than 40 million euros. The whole is financed by the church tax of the diocese and the means of the Episcopal See. Many Catholics, but also members of other churches and non-denominational respond angrily to the waste of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst. Many citizens are well aware that the churches also receive funding from the state – regardless of the church tax. Every citizen pays indirectly for lavish projects like the one in Limburg. But what do the churches receive funding for and what is the size of the state payments?

State grants for schools, nursing homes and hospitals

The churches run numerous social institutions. These include kindergartens, schools, nursing homes and hospitals. In many areas of Germany, the social infrastructure and health care of the population without these facilities would be inconceivable. However, many people assume that church-sponsored hospitals, for example, are financed by church tax. In fact, however, hospitals, as well as non-denominational institutions, receive public funding to finance buildings, facilities, technology, etc.

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State subsidies more than twice as high as income from church tax

How much money the churches receive for kindergartens, schools, nursing homes and Co. from the state is difficult to quantify. According to the violet book church finances in 2009 alone 3.915 billion euros were paid by the state for church daycare facilities. The Catholic and Protestant religious education cost the taxpayer 1.7 billion euros. By comparison, in 2009, the Catholic and Protestant churches received 4.9 billion or 4.4 billion euros through church tax. The state subsidies amounted to approximately 19.29 billion euros . The expenses of the municipalities, for example, for hospitals are not included.

State benefits of the countries bring the churches hundreds of millions

In addition to the tax money and subsidies, the churches receive the so-called endowments or state benefits. These are compensation payments by the Länder (except Hamburg and Bremen) to the churches for past expropriations. For example, the Protestant churches were affected by expropriations until the end of the 18th century. In various state church treaties, agreements were therefore reached on compensation between the countries and the various churches.

State finances 475 million euros for staff costs

These contracts often still exist today. In 2012 alone, around 475 million euros were paid nationwide to Catholic dioceses and the Protestant churches. Baden-Württemberg had the highest expenditure of around 106 million euros. Also in the new federal states since the beginning of the 1990er years donations are made to the churches again. The level of benefits is based on civil servants’ salaries – falling membership numbers thus have no influence on state benefits. The money is used for the personnel costs of the churches. Thus bishops continue to receive high salaries, even as the number of churchgoers decreases.

Welfare associations are predominantly financed by the state

But even then, the state donations to the churches have no end. For example, charities such as Caritas and Diakonie receive a large part of their financial resources from the state. Approximately 50 billion euros flow annually to the associations. And even church tax eventually costs those taxpayers money that is not a member of a church. Because the churches save about 1.8 billion euros per year in administrative costs, that the state collects the tax.

Critics want better handling of church finances

All in all, the excitement around Limburg so well understood. Although the waste of money at the bishopric has no direct financial impact on churchgoers and taxpayers. However, with so much government support to the churches, many are seeking a more responsible use of church tax and government grants.

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