(1) If an insurance policy offers insurance cover for a risk for which the insurer is certain to be liable, and the insurance agreement is rescinded because the policyholder terminates the contract, or because the insurer rescinds or avoids the policy, the insurer pays the surrender value.
(2) The surrender value is only paid insofar as this value does not exceed the payment made on occurrence of the insured event when the contract is terminated. The share of the surrender value not paid after that time is used for the fully paid-up insurance. In the case of rescission or avoidance of the contract. the full surrender value is paid.
(3) The surrender value is the premium reserve of the insurance, calculated with effect to the end of the current insurance period according to the accepted actuarial rules using the bases of premium calculation, in the case of the termination of the insurance agreement the amount of the premium reserve resulting from a symmetrical allocation of the calculated acquisition and distribution costs for the first five insurance years; the regulations stipulated by the supervisory authorities in respect of maximum zillmerising rates remain unaffected. The policyholder is to be informed of the surrender value, and of the extent to which it is guaranteed, before he or she submits his or her contractual acceptance; the statutory ordinance referred to in section 7 (2) specifies further particulars. If the insurer’s headquarters are located in another Member State of the European Union, or in another state party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, he or she may base his or her calculation of the surrender value on another reference value comparable in that state, rather than on the premium reserve.
(4) In the case of fund-based insurance policies, and of other insurance policies which provide for benefits of the type described in section 123 (2) sentence 2 of the Insurance Supervision Act, the surrender value is calculated based on the accepted actuarial rules as an end value of the insurance, insofar as the insurer does not guarantee payment of a specific benefit; subsection (3) applies in all other cases. The principles on which the calculation is based are cited in the contract.
(5) The insurer is only entitled to deduct the amount calculated in accordance with subsection (3) or (4) if it has been agreed, put in figures, and is appropriate. An agreement regarding a deduction for as yet unsettled acquisition and distribution costs is void.
(6) The insurer may reduce the amount calculated in accordance with subsection (3) by an appropriate amount insofar as this is necessary to rule out a risk to the policyholder’s concerns, especially a risk to the continuous satisfiability of the obligations arising from the contracts of insurance. The reduction is limited to one year in each instance.
(7) In addition to the amount calculated on the basis of subsections (3) to (6), the insurer pays the policyholder the surplus sharing already assigned to him or her, insofar as this has not already been added to the amount calculated in accordance with subsections (3) to (6), as well as the final surplus sharing provided for in accordance with the relevant general terms and conditions of insurance in the event of the termination of the contract; section 153 (3) sentence 2 remains unaffected.