Handelsbanken Liv's results for 2004: Best yield in the insurance sector - again
Just like the previous year, Handelsbanken Liv's policyholders received the best yield in 2004.
In 2004, customers' assets were adjusted up by 6.15 percent.
At other traditional life insurance companies, the bonus rate ranged between 0 and 4.67 percent for the same period.* The average for the insurance industry is 2.53 percent.
"We have now been a demutualised insurance company for three years, and every year our customers have benefited from this. In the first year, after the major falls on stock markets, we were the only company to contribute our own money to cover the policyholders' deficits. In the subsequent years, we have given our policyholders the best growth in value in the Swedish insurance sector. This proves that our demutualised model works in good times and bad," says Hans Hagman, chief executive of Handelsbanken Liv.
Handelsbanken Liv is the first non-mutual life insurance company in Sweden to offer traditional insurance. This means that the company offers private customers full rights to transfer their insurance capital to other companies and also full rights to move to a different type of insurance saving. Handelsbanken Liv is also the only company to guarantee its customers at least 90 percent of the company's total return each year. If the yield is lower than the guaranteed rate, the company pays the difference to the customers. If the yield is higher, the company receives 10 percent and the customers 90 percent.
"This means that our charges depend on our expertise. If the yield is lower than we promised, we receive nothing. In fact, we have to pay the difference for the customers who end up below the guaranteed level. If on the other hand we succeed in achieving higher yield than the guaranteed rate - as we did this year - we have to share it. But for every krona we receive, the customer receives nine," says Hans Hagman.
Handelsbanken Liv's total return for traditional insurance was 6.83 percent for the whole of 2004. This is higher than the guaranteed yield, which is between three and five percent, depending on the year the policy was taken out. This means the profit is shared, so that a customer with SEK 100,000 in pension assets will have these assets adjusted up by SEK 6,150 before fees and tax - the highest amount in the insurance sector.
During last year, Handelsbanken Liv increased the proportion of shares and reduced the proportion of fixed income instruments. The investments were broken down as follows, as at 31 December 2004:
Equities: 32 percent
Fixed income instruments: 60 percent
Property: 7 percent
Other: 1 percent
This information is included in the statements which will shortly be sent to Handelsbanken Liv's policyholders. This is still the only insurance statement in the Swedish market which provides policyholders of a traditional life insurance company with complete information about how their assets have performed during the year.
For further information, please contact:
Hans Hagman, chief executive, Handelsbanken Liv +46 8 613 20 00
Johan Lagerström, head of corporate communications, Handelsbanken Liv +46 8 613 22 42 Mobile: +46 70 265 80 14
The press release can be downloaded from the following link: