A study commissioned by AK analyses how the payout on maturity (capital benefit in the case of survival or at the end of the savings phase) and early termination (realisation of the surrender value or deposit value in the case of unit-linked life insurance policies) develop if the following assumptions and scenarios regarding the acquisition costs are used as the basis for the calculations: Commission-free policy with a fee paid by the insurance customer at the start of the contract (Variant 1), Distribution of the brokerage (sales) commission over the whole term of a life insurance contract (Variant 2), Distribution of the brokerage (sales) commission (acquisition costs) over the first 5 years of the term of a life insurance contract (Variant 3).

The calculations show that, under all model assumptions, (expense-based) fee-based advisory services generate non-cash benefits when considering maturity benefits and surrender values. The model assumptions also show that the tariff that spreads the acquisition costs over the entire term frequently results in a higher maturity benefit than the tariff that spreads the costs over the first 5 years of the term. The current legal requirement to spread the cost over the first 5 years results in significant disadvantages for all policyholders. There is also an economic dimension to this statement, as there are many existing capital-forming life insurance contracts based mainly on the commission system.