Operating accounts 2021

Alma has evaluated the 2021 occupational pension operating statements and presented selected key figures here. If you are interested in a detailed or customized evaluation, we would be very pleased to hear from you.

Stock active

This chart shows the number of active insured persons broken down by fully insured persons and other active insured persons over time. Mobiliar, Zurich and Axa since 2019 essentially insure other active insured persons. Swisslife is dominant in the area of fully insured persons, but also with strong growth in other actively insured persons.

Stock active

The portfolio of assets is heavily concentrated among four insurers. 75% of assets are insured with Swisslife, Axa, Mobiliar and Zurich. The remaining share is distributed among Basler, Helvetia, Allianz Suisse and Pax.

Pension recipients

There is also a concentration in the number of pension recipients. Swisslife, Axa, Basler and Helvetia insure 80% of all pension recipients. 20% are insured with Allianz Suisse, Zurich, Mobiliar and Pax.

The difference in concentration is due to the different product offerings of the providers. Mobiliar, for example, offers essentially no coverage for old-age pensions, which accounts for its high proportion of active employees and low proportion of pension benefits.

Investments

The asset allocation of the companies is shown here in a time series. The focus of the investments is on bonds in CHF and foreign currencies. However, this varies from company to company. The companies also manage their asset allocation differently. Swisslife, for example, has reduced its share of CHF commitments over time.

Retirement assets

Swiss Life stands out as the largest provider here. 58% of the retirement assets with almost 42 billion Swiss francs are insured from here. Axa, on the other hand, has a share of only 1%. This is also due to the product range. Swisslife, Basler, Helvetia, Allianz Suisse and Pax are the remaining insurers that offer so-called full insurance and thus carry the retirement assets on the balance sheet.

Loss ratio and combined ratio

On these graphs, the insurers’ loss ratio and combined ratio are presented in a time series for business subject to the minimum ratio and business not subject to the minimum ratio.

Developments over time are quite different for some companies. Mobiliar, for example, was able to reduce the combined ratio for the non-minimum quota business, but it had to accept a sharp increase for the minimum quota business in 2021.

Cost ratio

On these graphs, insurers’ expense ratios are presented in a time series for business subject to the minimum ratio and business not subject to the minimum ratio.

Here, too, very different developments can be seen. Axa, for example, was able to reduce the expense ratio in the minimum quota business very significantly in 2021, but without breaking even.

Cost premium per capita

The cost premium per active insured person varies greatly among the companies. Mobiliar has a very good ratio here, and Allianz Suisse and Pax a very high one. Economies of scale may play an important role here.

Technical interest rate and superobligatory conversion rate

The technical interest rates used to measure provisions are declining at all companies, as is the extra-mandatory conversion rate. However, it should be noted that insurers are increasingly using annuity models that no longer use a pure splitting model, but instead take into account the inclusion of the extra-mandatory retirement assets in the annuity.

Reinforcements of provisions

The proportion of reinforcements to the corresponding provisions varies greatly among the individual insurers.

The handling of future annuitization losses also leads to different ratios.

Return on equity and payout ratio

On these graphs, the insurers’ return on equity (profit (before tax) divided by 10% of technical provisions) and payout ratio are presented in a time series.

Here, too, very different developments can be seen. Axa tends to show a very good return on capital in relative terms, which is also due to the fact that Swisslife’s capital investment is high because of its full insurance offering.