Unit-linked insurance from GENERALI Asigurari and BNP Paribas
Insurer GENERALI Asigurari and the Romanian branch of one of the largest financial group from France, BNP Paribas, have together launched a new unit-linked life insurance product, with investments in Euro, named EURO Garant 15.
"GENERALI EURO Garant 15 addresses to people with above average incomes, who already have life insurance and acknowledge unit-linked specific benefits. Structured products represent the best combination between safety and risk, combining classic financial instruments with derivatives", stated Ovidiu RACOVEANU, Head of Service Life Insurance within GENERALI Asigurari.
The representatives of the insurer estimate that by the end of the year they will sell 600-700 policies, suspending the underwriting period after achieving this target.
For this type of policy, BNP Paribas, which will handle the management of investments, estimates an average yield of 7% per year, so that in an optimistic scenario, at the end of the 15 years period, the investment value will increase by over 200%.
GENERALI is already present on unit-linked segment through GENerali Investment Unit Solution products (Confident, Armonie and Active), from September 2006 and through EasyGENIUS, launched in March 2008.
The company ended the first half of the year with a 258% increase in the unit-linked life insurance segment as against S1/2007, with gross written premiums of EUR 6 million.
"Even though such products already have a history in Romania, the level of unit-linked insurance market is still very small, so the potential is considerable. Currently, such products are aimed at a category of target audience more sophisticated form the financial culture point of view, but the purpose is extending to a much broader segment", Ovidiu RACOVEANU concluded.
Unit-linked insurance market rose to EUR 71.32 million (RON 261.8 million) in the first half of the year, from EUR 70.15 million (RON 233.7 million) in H1/2007, representing more than 5.9% of the total underwritings of the Romanian insurance market.
Author: Mihaela CIRCU
on 11.09.2008
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