Claims management Q&A

Your insurance pays claims for insured receivables that have become non-recoverable. If nothing changes, you can assume that an insurance payment will not have to be repaid without good reason. However, if circumstances do change – for instance, if the customer makes a payment – you must tell Allianz Trade immediately. If you recover any money that reduces the loss, we will ask you to make a pro rata repayment. If a policyholder fails to fulfil the duty to mitigate losses after a claim has been paid, Allianz Trade reserves the right to demand that a claims payment be paid back.

After a limit is cancelled, future supplies to the customer will no longer be covered by insurance. Policyholders are free to make further supplies at their own risk. It is important to note, however, that any payments received – irrespective of whether they are made for insured or uninsured supplies – will always be credited to the oldest outstanding invoice and will therefore always be used to reduce the amount of a loss. This remains the case even if further supplies are made in exchange for payment in advance. Any such advance payments will thus go towards reducing the amount of the loss and will be deducted accordingly.

Payments and receipts that are due to Allianz Trade must be transferred to Allianz Trade without delay. This is a duty of the policyholder. Allianz Trade will then draw up a recourse statement, which will indicate the proportion of uninsured receivables to insured receivables.

Under the General Terms of Insurance, a disputed receivable is not insured because some or all of it is not recognised by the debtor. This can happen, for instance, when a debtor reports a defect or lodges a legal objection (a Rechtsvorschlag or opposition). The receivable will only be insured again (retroactively) if the legal objection is annulled and/or the dispute is resolved. Resolution means any final agreement between the parties about the recognition of the receivable, where it is made in court or out of court. The relevant date is the day on which the court judgment takes effect or the out-of-court agreement is acknowledged in writing by the parties.

A trading history lists all transactions (invoices, payments received and credit notes) between the policyholder and the customer. Allianz Trade requires a trading history for each customer for the period from six months before the oldest outstanding invoice to today’s date.

An outstanding items list shows all your outstanding invoices and gives an overview of all your debtors.

A receivable is deemed non-recoverable whenever it can be definitively assumed that a default has occurred. This is always the case if a customer has gone into bankruptcy or an insured event has occurred.

All outstanding receivables (overdue receivables and receivables not yet due at the time you report the claim) must be documented in the claim report, which is usually done by submitting an outstanding items list. Together with the trading history, this also provides an overview of all the transactions that have taken place.

Depending on the contractual arrangement, either Allianz Trade or the policyholder will take responsibility for collecting the debt. The policyholder can also choose to hire a third-party service provider for this purpose.

Collection costs are generally not insured. Policyholders must bear collection costs themselves.

Policyholders have a duty to mitigate losses. This duty continues to apply even after a claim has been paid. If a debtor goes into bankruptcy, all receivables must be notified in good time to the bankruptcy office, as the policyholder remains the owner of the receivable. If the creditor in insolvency (the policyholder) receives a quota or dividend payment as a result of the insolvency proceedings, this must be reported promptly to Allianz Trade. Allianz Trade will then draw up a recourse statement and send it to the policyholder. Once you receive the recourse statement, you must pay the portion of the quota/dividend payment that is due to Allianz Trade.

Policyholders who fail to take steps to collect a debt or fail to adequately carry them out jeopardise their right to an insurance payout if the claim is for a “non-payment”. In the case of bankruptcy proceedings, if a policyholder fails to notify receivables to the bankruptcy office, the insurance payment may be reduced or demanded back in full.

Policyholders must take all necessary and reasonable steps against the debtor to collect or reduce the outstanding debt. This includes not only non-court collection procedures in the form of written or telephone reminders, but also all legal steps that form part of a legal procedure, from ordinary debt collection proceedings to a final demand on threat of bankruptcy. All steps must be taken until no further appeal is possible.

If the receivable is insured, i.e. not disputed, no collection costs are incurred where the policyholder has an Integral Collection policy. If the receivable is disputed, policyholders must pay the collection costs up front. They will be reimbursed later on once the dispute has been resolved.

The terms for placing uninsured debts for collection can be found in your policy.

To mitigate a loss, it may be appropriate to obtain partial payment by reaching a settlement or waiving a receivable. This is possible in principle, but you must agree it with Allianz Trade in advance. If you waive part of a receivable without prior agreement from Allianz Trade, then you are failing to fulfil your duty to mitigate losses. As a result, only the reduced amount of the receivable will be covered.

An instalment plan must specify the amount and date of each instalment. Care should be taken to ensure that an instalment payment plan is signed by the debtor wherever possible. All instalment plans should meet the requirements for an acknowledgement of a debt, i.e. by signing the instalment plan, the debtor should acknowledge the amount shown as an outstanding receivable.

Instead of requesting a credit limit, policyholders can obtain cover for a customer up to the amount of the notification threshold under the self-check rule, provided the contractual preconditions for self-checking are met.

Policyholders should report overdue payments directly to the claims department once the specified reporting period has expired, by opening a new claim on the EOLIS online portal.