Facts & Figures

Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG) can look back on a very successful year in 2023. Last year, it achieved records for the most important key performance indicators and in most business areas never seen in the company's almost 50-year history.

This underlines the fact that people continue to take a strong interest in asset accumulation, pension provision and risk protection and want local, personalised and comprehensive advice and support. The prospects for the profession of financial advisor, and its holistic financial advisory approach, are therefore better than ever.

Setting new records in a demanding environment

The conditions in 2023 were more than challenging. This came on top of the existing geopolitical challenges arising from the Ukraine conflict and developments in the Middle East. Important areas of the German economy are under pressure or are undergoing radical change. And in the first half of the year in particular, companies and private households clearly felt the effects of the strong inflation that had begun in the previous year. Our financial advisors and their work were more in demand than ever in this context.

The scale of the demand for financial advice and support is shown by the fact that in the year 2023 alone, more than 1,700 people opted for a career as a self-employed financial advisor or as an independent financial advisor. Equally impressive was the fact that our financial advisors were able to conclude an average of around 14,000 new contracts every working day. This is a new record.

In this environment, the company increased revenues, reaching a new record of over 2.3 billion euros, which was actually 3.0 per cent above the previous record year in 2021. The net profit for the year (271.9 million euros) was no less impressive, and also set a new record. All of this emphasises that Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG), in cooperation with its financial advisors, is well on its way to success and long-term growth, which has continued even in a year that has been difficult due to general conditions.

Allfinanz and Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG)

Performance-orientated, human and strong – these values characterise our company culture and its professional community. They guide how we work together and every financial advisor upholds them. Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG) is a family-owned company through and through, and every financial advisor is part of the family, as are, of course, those, who work for its Allfinanz subsidiaries or who work in Austria and Switzerland. They also contributed to the successes of 2023. An essential factor here is that our financial advisors allow their colleagues to share in their recipes for success. The success of the individual thus becomes the success of the many and, in short, the success of the entire company.

Your pension is in safe hands – thanks to holistic financial advice

"Your pension is in safe hands" – everyone knows that's not necessarily true if you just rely on your state pension. At just 48% of your final income, it is too little for almost anyone to live on alone in their old age. And the forecasts are rather gloomy, because baby boomers will soon be retiring. One of our financial advisors' most important tasks is therefore to help their clients achieve an adequate, secure pension early on, whether this is through private pension schemes, company retirement provision or by utilising state subsidies.

The results show how important this topic is to citizens: in life insurance, Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG) increased its portfolio (sum insured excluding occupational disability insurance) by 2.6% to 183.9 billion euros (previous year 179.2 billion euros). At 17.4 billion euros, new business was up significantly by 5.4% on the previous year. An important factor here was the basic pension, for which 41,115 new contracts alone were concluded and the tax benefits from which the customers concerned will now benefit for decades.

Healthy with private health insurance

The population is getting older, which means that issues such as health and care are becoming more and more important, and social security systems cannot cover everything. Financial advisors are the first point of contact when it comes to switching policies, taking out supplementary health insurance or increasing statutory nursing care insurance. Increasingly, however, companies are also discovering the opportunities to offer their employees supplementary company health insurance and thereby do something good for their staff. In this area, we were able to triple the number of newly concluded collective agreements. What's more, we achieved new record results in the other areas of the private health and nursing care insurance sector. In 2023, our company's portfolio increased by 6.4% to an annual target amount of 1,664.2 million euros. At 86.2 million euros, new business was significantly (40.8%) higher than the previous year (58.3 million euros).

Staying safe, at all times

People face a lot of risks. If something happens, the costs can quickly mount up. For example, they may face a liability case, a break-in, theft, fire or storm damage. They may have an accident that causes injury or, in the worst-case scenario, leads to a permanent disability. It is possible to set up financial protection to cover each of these risks individually. But it is better to take out an “Vermögenssicherungspolice (VSP)” , which is only available from financial advisors and which offers all-round cover for everyday risks. The company's financial advisors have already brokered over a million such policies. The company was thus able to expand its portfolio of property, liability, accident and legal expenses insurance policies by 6.2% to 3 billion euros in 2023. At 434.1 million euros, new business was noticeably (5.8%) higher than in the previous year (410.2 million euros).

Pro rata and with equity funds – how to grow your assets

When it came to financial investment, one topic dominated in 2023: the significant and rapid rise in interest rates due to inflation. More or less '"from one day to the next'", fixed-term deposits were suddenly attractive again. The stock markets, on the other hand, were volatile, but by the end of the year, most important indices nevertheless recorded pleasing increases. It is obvious that in a market in such a state of flux, our financial advisors were in high demand when it came to financial investment. This was because many customers wanted to review their existing investments and good advice was more valuable than ever for new investments.

In this environment, which is almost impossible for the '"normal'" investor to assess, we were able to achieve a record result for fixed-interest and time deposits with new investments totalling 351 million euros. The investment portfolio (direct business and inflows from unit-linked life insurance policies) increased by a double-digit 10.4% from 33.8 to 37.4 billion euros. In new business (direct investment only), we achieved a very good result of 2.9 billion euros in a volatile market, which was only just below the previous year's result (3 billion euros).

A golden age for building society savings schemes

If 2022 was already a year for building society savings, 2023 can be described as unprecedented. This is because the boom that started in 2022, caused by the turnaround in interest rates, continued in 2023. This was primarily due to the fact that we were able to promise our clients an interest rate for future financing with the tariffs offered by our partner Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia that remain significantly below current market interest rates for banks' mortgage offers. This shows that many people are waiting to purchase a property, and use the time to build up equity and then benefit from very favourable financing conditions later on. In this environment, the company was once again able to increase new business by an outstanding 23.1% to a new record level of 4.5 billion euros (previous year: 3.7 billion euros). The portfolio increased by 9.6% from 26.2 billion to 28.7 billion euros.

One man's joy is often another man's sorrow. Unfortunately, fast and steeply rising interest rates meant many people had to put a property purchase or construction project on hold. Accordingly, the property market and the construction industry almost collapsed. This was also reflected in our results for the brokerage of mortgage loans, which, in line with the market, were down significantly in terms of new business at 2 billion euros (minus 46,2 %). However, we are confident that, with interest rates falling again, business will pick up strongly due to postponed purchase and construction decisions.

Financial advice always also involves taking clients' payment habits into account. No form of financing is on average 10.8% more expensive than an overdraft. And by carefully analysing monthly expenditure, it is possible to quickly identify "cost guzzlers", especially in times of higher inflation. Financial advisors therefore also offer their clients advice about their finances and the corresponding products, above all a current account from the Deutsche Bank with special terms and low-priced personal and consumer loans, allowing a lot of money to be saved through debt restructuring. We were able to arrange 450 million euros in loans in this way in 2023. More than 60,000 customers signed up for the "Zinskonto Plus'" account from Deutsche Bank too.

Gold is inflation protection and a crisis currency

Gold shines – that's the only reason people are fascinated by it, wear it as jewellery or give gold coins as gifts. The precious metal is also considered to be crisis and inflation-proof, and is therefore a popular addition to financial investments. The options are diverse and and nowhere else can you get such a wide range from a single source than from financial advisors: be it in the form of physical gold, as a savings plan or one-off investment or even as an option for retirement provision, integrated into private life and pension insurance policies. In addition, the range was supplemented in 2022 with a new exclusive silver savings plan. Our financial advisors have already brokered a total of 7.6 tonnes of gold and over 41 tonnes of physical silver in direct business.

Financial advice for entrepreneurs and the self-employed too

Financial advice is not limited to private clients. Many SMEs and self-employed people need financial advice on the commercial side of their business, so their money is not sitting idle and they are not exposing themselves to unnecessarily high risks. Company retirement provision and occupational health insurance are also of interest to many business owners to maintain employee loyalty. Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG) was thus able to further expand its commercial insurance business. The portfolio increased by 9.4% to 346 million euros. The range of services offered by Deutsche Verrechnungsstelle is particularly interesting and cannot be found elsewhere on the market in this form, which financial advisors can exclusively arrange for their commercial clients. This involves invoice and receivables management as well as the financing of operational investments. The demand for these services and the corresponding financial advice is constantly growing. The total volume of brokered contracts in 2023 exceeded 400 million euros.

A strong partner

Deutsche Bank

Generali Deutschland

DWS Group

More about our product partnerships

Financial advice – a winning export

Financial advice is advice from person to person, i.e. "local business", and is always closely integrated into social security systems, which differ greatly from country to country. It is therefore generally ill-advised to provide financial advisory services across borders, but instead to work with local financial advisors who thoroughly understand the country, its customs and general conditions from their own experience. The same applies here: citizens need advice, as the subject matter is complex. Being able to provide such financial advice across all sectors from a single source is always an advantage.

This is reflected in the success of our subsidiaries, Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG) in Austria and Switzerland, which we have achieved with Deutsche Vermögensberatung Bank AG, based in Vienna, and Schweizer Vermögensberatung in Zurich.

Global Sana AG (Switzerland), which previously specialised in health insurance brokerage and in which Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG) holds a majority stake, was also able to build on its success.

Business report 2023

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