Magazine / News
Who carries the risk, and why you should ask
We underwrite in the name of Wuerttembergische Versicherung AG. The distinction between agency and carrier is not a formality.
1 March 2025CompanyNAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH
When our previous risk carrier separated from broker portfolios in 2024, it affected us too. Around 15,000 customers were touched by it. We cancelled the existing contracts ourselves and put a new offer to every customer immediately. Ninety per cent came with us.
Today we underwrite in the name of Wuerttembergische Versicherung AG, an insurance undertaking with more than 190 years of history. In practice that means the examination of a risk, the underwriting decision and the handling of a claim happen with us, under the carrier mandate, while the carrier stands behind the contract.
For a buyer outside Germany the useful part of this story is not the outcome but the question it produces. Before you sign, ask three things: which undertaking carries the risk, which authority supervises it, and what happens to my contract if that undertaking leaves this line of business. All three are answerable in advance, in writing.
What still occupies us about the episode is set out in full on our German page about the case, including the part we think should have gone better for the customers of those providers who found no solution at all.
Common questions
Why does it matter who the carrier is?
Because the carrier is the party that owes the money. An agency decides and settles under mandate, but the obligation sits with the insurance undertaking named in the contract.
Who do I speak to about a claim?
Us. The claim is examined and settled at the agency that underwrote the contract, not at a central switchboard.
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