According to data collected by the Polish Chamber of Insurance (PIU), after three quarters of 2024, Poles received PLN 36.8 billion worth of insurance compensation and benefits. Payouts related to natural forces – violent weather and the toll taken by the flood in the south of Poland – increased by as much as 40 per cent. The increase in total payouts related to motor insurance claims is also noteworthy.

Key figures:

• PLN 36.8 billion paid to the injured, including:
  • PLN 12.2 billion from life insurance policies,
  • PLN 15.2 billion from motor insurance policies (third-party liability insurance + motor hull insurance),
  • PLN 9.4 billion from other insurance policies.
• Poles spent PLN 63.2 billion on insurance, which is 9.6 per cent more than in the comparable period of 2023.
• PLN 102.8 billion worth of assets were bonds and other fixed-income securities, supporting the economy and public finances.
• PLN 18.8 billion worth of assets were invested in shares of WSE-listed companies and other variable-income securities.
• PLN 1.3 billion of income tax was paid by insurers.

Life insurance

– The life insurance market is slowly but steadily growing. Poles are more and more interested in solutions that will provide financial support to their relatives in the event of death or illness of the breadwinner. They are also being increasingly drawn towards investment products. This is particularly evident among middle-income earners, who are beginning to see those products as a safe form of investment of household budget surpluses. However, compared to Western European countries, Poles are still highly underinsured when it comes to life insurance. It is imperative that appropriate incentives for long-term savings and life and health protection for clients be introduced. There is also a need to level the playing field for insurance companies and other financial institutions in terms of asset tax. Only through these changes can the market growth accelerate. And this is crucial for boosting the insurance sector’s potential to support the development of the Polish economy – says Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński, President of the Management Board of PIU.

Through long-term insurance products, insurers can support investments, especially those facilitating infrastructure development, energy transition and climate protection. Above all, however, insurance-based investment products account for the largest proportion (70 per cent) of retail investments in Europe. They are also the only products that help people invest with old-age security in mind, along with additional protection functions and benefits.

Total payouts under life insurance have gone down, which mainly reflects the decrease in mortality after the pandemic.

After three quarters of 2024, we spent PLN 17.7 billion on life insurance policies. This is 4 per cent more year-on-year. Their number remains stable, as there were 11.2 million individual insurance policies and 11.8 million people insured under group insurance, with interest in them growing every quarter. Total premium from group contracts amounted to PLN 7.4 billion, rising 5.8 per cent year-on-year. This shows that life insurance is one of the most important employee benefits.

Motor insurance

In property insurance, the largest part of compensation has traditionally been paid under motor insurance policies. Compensations under motor hull insurance amounted to PLN 6.3 billion. This is almost 20 per cent more than the previous year.

After three quarters of 2024, the average motor third-party liability insurance premium was PLN 532. This is only PLN 23 more than the year before (a 4.5 per cent increase y/y). In the same period, the average value of claims rose by as much as 10.9 per cent year-on-year, to more than PLN 10,500. This is PLN 1,035 more than the previous year.

– We are seeing a steady increase in the cost of claims; and this will not change in the coming months, as the costs of parts and services are going up. Insurers must take this into account in their calculations if they want to meet their obligation of balancing compensation payouts with premiums. Therefore, we should expect further gradual increases in the rates of motor third-party liability insurance – says Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński.

Property insurance

As a result of damage caused by fires and other natural forces, insurers paid out more than PLN 2.3 billion worth of compensation and benefits after three quarters of 2024. This is a year-on-year increase of as much as 40 per cent.

– After a difficult spring and stormy summer, autumn brought the flood in the south of Poland. Since the beginning of the year, insurers have recorded numerous local incidents related to hailstorms, windstorms, driving rain, but also fires. Many cities, including Łódź, Bielsko Biała, Wrocław and Warsaw, experienced flash floods during the summer holidays. These phenomena demonstrated the importance of maintaining an unobstructed drainage system. In turn, in agricultural insurance alone, the financial impact of the spring frosts amounted to PLN 379.64 million. Driving rain and hailstorms caused agricultural damage of PLN 412.5 million – says Andrzej Maciążek, vice-president of the Management Board of PIU.

69,000 homeowners and flat owners in the south received compensation

69,000 people were paid compensation in the aftermath of the flood in the south of Poland. The majority of cases are now closed, but individual claims are still being submitted to insurers.

– The full effects of the flood will only be known in a few or even several months. Many flood victims will not carry out comprehensive renovation work until spring. Meanwhile, insurers are collecting documentation in the most complex cases concerning businesses. It can take businesses several months to recreate even a production line. However, it is worth noting that, although the flood was disastrous, it mostly affected the places where flood protection infrastructure had been absent or defective. This shows the importance of prevention and building systems to avert such phenomena – explains Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński.

Net result

After three quarters of 2024, Polish insurers generated a net profit of PLN 8.3 billion. This was achieved mainly thanks to increased income from insurers’ investments, attributable to, among other things, high interest rates. Another crucial contributor was the decrease in mortality compared to the situation during the pandemic; this reduced payouts under life insurance policies. Through CIT payments, insurers injected PLN 1.3 billion into the state budget.

Examples of insurance claims from the 3rd quarter of 2024