5. Technical provisions

Unearned premiums

For short-term insurance contracts, such as most property and casualty insurance policies, premiums relating to future years are reported as unearned premiums in line with the applicable regulations of US GAAP. The amount of these unearned premiums corresponds to the insurance cover granted proportionally in future periods. Premiums levied upon entering into certain long-term contracts (e.g. upfront fees) are recognised as unearned premiums. In line with the applicable regulations of US GAAP, these fees are recorded in the same manner as the redemption of deferred acquisition costs. These unearned premiums are in principle calculated for each individual policy and exactly to the day. If they are attributable to life insurance, they are included in insurance provision.

Insurance provision

Insurance provisions are essentially established in the life and health insurance lines. Their carrying amount is determined based on actuarial principles on the basis of the present value determined prospectively of future benefits to be paid by the insurer less the present value of future net premiums the insurer expects to receive on an individual contract basis. Insurance provisions are also established in the property and casualty lines that cover life-long obligations (accident pensions as well as pensions in motor vehicle liability insurance). The insurance provision of the life insurer is calculated by taking into account contractually agreed calculation principles, which are explained in more detail under the actuarial risks in Chapter 44, Risk profile. These calculation principles take into account assumptions related to costs, mortality, invalidity and interest rate changes. Reasonable safety margins are included here in order to account for the risk of adjustments, errors and contingencies over the term of the contract.

For policies that are mainly of investment character (e.g. unit-linked life insurance), the provisions of FAS 97 are used to measure insurance provision. Insurance provision is arrived at by combining the invested amounts, the change in value of the underlying investments and the withdrawals under the policy.

Insurance provisions for health insurance are determined based on calculation principles that correspond to the “best estimate”, taking into account safety margins. Once calculation principles have been determined, they have to be applied to the corresponding partial portfolio for the whole duration (locked-in principle).

Provisions for unsettled claims

The provision for unsettled claims includes both the provision for claims already reported by the reporting date as well as the provision for damage that has not yet been reported but which has already occurred.

The provision in property and casualty insurance is determined based on a best estimate. Standard actuarial models are used to calculate the claim reserves with the parameters for these based on historical data. The assumptions made are reviewed continuously and adjusted if necessary. Examples of material assumptions include growth in claims frequency and in average claims expenses. Another material assumption is the settlement patterns for the individual lines of business which can be impacted by various factors. Assumptions regarding the future progress of claims inflation are only made to the extent that the future development is extrapolated based on historical observations. In insurance lines in which past experience does not allow the application of statistical methods, calculations are made on the basis of market data or expert assessments.

Discounting of claims reserves only takes place with respect to a small section of the annuity reserves for which an insurance provision is also formed. Recourse payments expected in future are deducted from the provision for unsettled claims. Costs of settling the claim that are directly attributable to the claim event, such as costs of an expert report, are already included in the calculation for the provision. Provisions for internal settlement expense are determined in a separate calculation procedure. The calculation of the provision for unsettled claims involves uncertainty on account of the contingency risk in the underlying assumptions. Further information on this can be found in Chapter 44, Risk profile.

For health insurance, provisions for unsettled claims are estimated on the basis of past experience, taking into consideration the known arrears in claim payments.

Life insurance is calculated on an individual loss basis with the exception of the provision for unreported claims.

Provision for the assumed reinsurance business generally complies with the figures of the cedents.

Provisions for premium refunds and profit participation

The provision for premium refunds includes the amounts for profit-related and non-profit-related profit participation to which the policyholders are entitled on the basis of statutory or contractual provisions.

In health and life insurance, policies with a discretionary participation feature, differences between local measurement and measurement in accordance with IFRSs are presented with deferred profit participation taken into account, whereby this is also reported in profit/(loss) for the period or in other comprehensive income depending on the recognition of the change in the underlying measurement differences. The amount of the provision for deferred profit participation generally comes to 85 per cent of the measurement differentials after tax.

Other technical provisions

This item essentially contains provisions for contingent losses for acquired reinsurance portfolios as well as provisions for expected cancellations and premium defaults.

Liability Adequacy Test

The Liability Adequacy Test evaluates whether the established IFRS reserves are sufficient. For life insurance portfolios, a best estimate reserve is compared with the IFRS reserve less deferred acquisition costs plus unearned revenue liability (URL). This calculation is done separately each quarter for mixed insurance policies, pension policies, risk insurance policies, and unit-linked and index-linked policies.

Because UNIQA already uses the best estimate approach for calculating loss reserves in non-life insurance, only the premiums to be expected in the future will be tested. Business lines that feature a surplus in the annual calculation of less than 5 per cent from future premiums less claims and costs expected in future are reviewed each quarter. In non-life insurance, the business lines tested are motor vehicle liability insurance, general liability insurance and other.

The interest rates used as an accounting basis for the insurance provision were as follows: