Condor Versicherungen: Condor – Innovative broker insurer with an excellent customer orientation

Reliability, solidity and far-sightedness are among the key elements of Hanse­­atic virtues and cooperative values. Both apply to Condor Versicherungen, firmly rooted in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The broker insurer has been part of R+V Ver­­sicherung since 2008, making it an inte­­gral part of the cooperative Finanz­­Gruppe, whose members, including the 1,100 Ger­­­­man commercial credit cooper­­a­­tives (Volks­­­­bank) and agricultural credit cooperatives (Raiffeisenbank), R+V Ver­­­si­­cherung, Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall, Union Investment and DZ Bank, have al­­ways stood for economic success and socially responsible conduct.

A “true” broker insurer. Initially founded by entrepreneur Rudolf-August Oetker as a transport insurer at the time of the “economic miracle”, Condor today covers the entire spectrum of property and life insurance. The portfolio ranges from com­­posite insurance products such as for motor vehicles, accidents and third-party liability to protection against occu­­pational disability as well as fund-linked and index-oriented pen­­sions and life insur­­ances. But Condor has not abandoned its original business either. Even today it is an important maritime and transport insurer. Condor companies sell all their products exclusively via brokers, multiple-line insurers and underwriting agents, making Condor one of the few “true” broker insurers in Germany.

In the highly competitive brokerage mar­­ket, the R+V subsidiary has always shown better development than the market over­­­all in recent years, and has enjoyed an impressive success story. At the end of 2012, the four Condor companies be­­tween them had 435,000 customers, 900,000 contracts and total income from premiums of 406 million euros. And this is set to rise even further.

Innovative and customer-oriented. This economic success is built on cooper­­a­tive and Hanseatic values, combined with constant innovation and consistent cus­­tomer orientation. Reliability plays a piv­­­otal role here, for the partnership be­­tween customer and insurer is usually planned for decades ahead. An in­­surance company must be sufficiently strong financially if it is to deliver on its current promise in 30, 40 or 50 years’ time. Condor is in an excellent position in this respect. As recently as February 2013, the rating agency Fitch confirmed its A+ evaluation of Condor Lebens­versi­che­rungs-AG (outlook: stable).

In addition, Condor has received top marks for “sustainable customer orien­­tation in the insurance industry” twice in a row. The market research institute ServiceValue GmbH and AMC Finanz­­markt GmbH questioned about 5,000 cus­­tomers for the study. It goes without saying that customer orientation also includes service employees who know what they are talking about. This is why Condor operates its own service centre in Hamburg in which 31 trained employees answer any questions brokers and customers may have.

Only those who react to new conditions and offer tailor-made solutions will make it in business. For many years, Condor’s innovative power has been reflected in provisioning concepts that are adapted to specific phases of life and a variety of modern products tailored to the needs of individual customer groups. The cus­­­­tomer groups include medium-sized com­­­­panies that need individual solutions in occupational pension schemes, wealthy private customers who are interested in insurance solutions and classic retirement provision savers.

Fund-linked insurance products and pro­­­­tection against occupational disability are impressive examples of Condor’s out­­standing innovative power. For fund-linked insurance products, Condor was the first insurer ever to turn to an external consultant for the selection of funds. The consultant reviews the funds offered every year and recommends that funds are changed or replaced if necessary. Cus­­tomers can then decide if they want to follow the professional advice. This concept impressed many brokers and customers from the very beginning.

Condor sets standards in occupational disability insurance, and has also been setting standards in the protection of capacity for work through the occupational disability complementary insurance (ODCI) for decades. The “Comfort OCDI” was further improved in 2013 and regularly receives top evaluations in studies – as it did in 2013 in the rating of occupational disability insurances by Morgen & Morgen, which attracted wide­­spread attention. Condor received the top evaluation for the eleventh time in a row. Its new ODCI, for instance, has a more sophisticated scale for professional groups, thereby significantly reducing the premiums for some professions in some cases. Furthermore, the revised conditions offer many new advantages, in particular for trainees, students and the self-employed.

However, Condor does not want to rest on its laurels. This is why the product managers at Condor and R+V continue to work on further improved and new premiums. Regardless of all the innovation, one thing will never change at Condor: its Hanseatic and cooperative values.