Opinions and Review on the Allianz Policy

Have you heard of PersonalWay? It’s a unit-linked policyor a hybrid insurance product as it allows not only to make sure, but also to be able to invest one’s own capital to obtain returns.

The policy is offered by Allian groupz. The solution is ideal for those who want to invest capital to seize market opportunities and plan to have periodic repayments that can be used for themselves or for their loved ones.

If you have been offered this product, or simply if you want to find out about unit linked policies in general, then you are in the right place.

In this review I will illustrate you advantages, disadvantages and above all i costs of the policy, and at the end of the reading you will be able to make a structured reasoning and understand if the product may interest you or not.

Enjoy the reading!

Who is Allianz

It is one of the main Italian insurers, one of the world leaders in the insurance sector and in asset management, therefore from the point of view of security and solidity we are talking about a trusted institution.

Allianz SE is a European insurance and financial services company based in Munich, Germany, and is present in Italy as Allianz S.p.A.

It has more than 100 million customers, most of whom are satisfied with the treatment they receive.

However, the solidity of the group does not guarantee us that the product in question is necessarily a good product, in fact we are now going to analyze it to understand more.

Are unit linked policies risky?

First of all, let’s see what unit linked policies are and how they are made up.

These are policies that do not present no security on the cel contracting capital about the future performance of the market, and therefore precisely for this reason they are not able to guarantee any minimum return. That’s why you could lose all or part of your investment, and from here you understand that they are risky.

In fact, unit linked typically invest in a stock fundtherefore your capital is linked to the performance of the financial markets.

The thing that further complicates things is the fact that the policy essentially invests in many internal funds, and each of these funds has a risk profile that can be low, medium or high, and naturally depends on the type of instruments in which it invests, the geographical area of ​​reference and the type of financial management.

Consequently, the policy in question is a very risky investmentso if you decide to subscribe to it, think about it, and above all analyze all the cases and characteristics.

Policy features

PersonalWay it’s a unit-linked policy which provides for the possibility of investing capital to better seize market opportunities. It allows the contractor to be able to decide the amount, frequency and when to start receiving reimbursements.

The contract provides that the contractor pays a single premium, which will then be invested in one or more internal funds, managed by some external companies, usually SGR (asset management company).

The investment

As for the investment part, you can choose between 4 funds that are managed by Allianz Global Investorsone of the world‘s leading asset managers, e Investors sgr.

Let’s see what they are 4 funds:

• Allianz Personal Selection: designed for the investor seeking a balance between capital growth and risk control, thanks to multi-asset and multi-manager management;
• AllianzGI Personal Strategy 30: designed for an investor who wants to seize the opportunities that present themselves on the markets while avoiding excessive risks;
• AllianzGI Personal Strategy 50: for the investor willing to accept a greater risk in the search for returns, but always with a prudent approach;
• AllianzGI Personal Strategy 75: designed for an investor who wants to maximize return opportunities

The payment of the premium

The contract provides for the payment of a single prize that has a minimum amount of 50,000 euros, while if the amount is higher than this figure it must in any case be a multiple of this number.

You can also do no more additional payments.

The insurance benefit

In addition to the investment part, as I was saying, we have the actual insurance part.

In case of death of the contractor, the company undertakes to pay the beneficiaries the residual capital which will be liquidated.

There are some clauses: if the death occurs at least one year after the start of the contract, the capital is increased by 10% if, when the event occurs, the insured is under 45 years of age, by 5% if he has aged between 45 and 54, by 2% if aged between 55 and 64, by 1% if aged between 65 and 74, by 0.5% if aged between 75 and 80 years old and finally by 0.1% if over 80 years old, with a maximum increase of 50,000.00 euros.

Persons who can be insured must be at least 18 years old and not more than 85 years old.

The survival benefit instead it refers to the disbursement of periodic recurring services to the policyholder on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual basis for a fixed amount (and is obtained by multiplying the single premium paid by the de-cumulation percentage chosen by the Policyholder and dividing the amount thus obtained for the frequency of disbursement (12 if monthly, 4 if quarterly, 2 if six-monthly and 1 if yearly)).

Switch options

You can request options to totally divest the shares of the internal fund to reinvest them in another internal fund.

However, you cannot perform partial switch operations.

The shares to be divested must have at least a minimum value of 3,000 euros; the first switch is free, and subsequently the fixed cost is 25 euros.

Duration

The contract is a whole life, therefore its duration coincides with the life of the policyholder, unless the quotas of the internal fund assigned to the contract are exhausted.

Contract suspension is not foreseen.

Who is this policy for?

A policy of this type is aimed primarily at a knowledgeable investorwho knows what type of contract it is, and above all who knows what a unit linked policy is.

The product is intended for an investor who has a time horizon of at least 10 or 15 years, who has a lot of capital to invest, given that the entry threshold is at least 50,000 euros. Furthermore, the investor who subscribes to this contract seeks medium-high returns and has at least a medium propensity for risk, therefore he is also able to bear moderate losses.

Policy costs

This is the most important part as well as the most problematic for this type of contract. In fact, one of the disadvantages of unit linked policies are the costs.

Products of this kind have many costs, some even difficult to understand or which may escape the less experienced, and they inevitably impact on the promised returns from the investment.

Let’s analyze together cost schedule.

The issuing costs are not expected, while we have i loading costs which are equal to 3% of the premium paid; the costs for the redemption are 0.50% for the first 6 months (as we have already mentioned in the appropriate paragraph) and 0% thereafter, while the costs for the switch are 25 euros after the first free one.

Now let’s move on to management fees, which perhaps represent the most conspicuous part. They are calculated and posted on a weekly basis, and taken from each fund’s equity, so this reduces the policyholder’s return. The management fee is 1.80% per annum for all internal funds that are linked to the contract. Performance commissions, on the other hand, are applied to each valuation when the value of the fund unit reaches its historical maximum value.

Finally we have i brokerage costswith reference to the commission flow relating to the product that intermediaries receive on average, and is equal to 31.1%.

In order to have clearer ideas, however, I advise you to read the KIID carefully since sometimes many costs are hidden, or depend on the type of investment you have chosen.

The ransom

You can get the payment of the service life insurance too.

In this circumstance you have the right to redeem the residual capital accrued from the moment in which the deadline for exercising the right of withdrawal has expired, i.e. 30 days.

The total redemption value is equal to the countervalue of the residual units of the internal fund, while the redemption cost is equal to 0.50% of the countervalue of the units if the redemption is exercised in the first 6 months of the contact. After this period, no redemption fee will be applied to you, and furthermore you can only exercise the total redemption, and not the partial one.

Revocation and withdrawal

To finish our discussion and make it complete, let’s see your other rights that you have against the contract, namely the right of revocation and withdrawal.

Il right of revocation it can be exercised until receipt of the communication of the conclusion of the contract; within 30 days of receipt of the communication, the company will be required to refund the premium paid.

The right to withdrawal it can be exercised within 30 days from the date of conclusion of the contract: in this way the policy is canceled and the company will have to reimburse the premium already invested minus the costs.

My Business Opinions

Now that you have an idea of ​​the contract he was born in productI can move on to express my opinions.

As you will have understood, I am not very inclined to invest using unit linked policies, so I am not referring only to this one in particular, but also to other similar products.

If you want to insure yourself, insurance should protect you from risks and not allow you to invest: combining the two never leads to anything good.

These contracts as you could see are complex, are stuffed with costs, some of which are not easily understood, and above all they do not give any guarantee on returns! You may find yourself losing all or part of your capital, for what? For wanting to subscribe to a product that wants to do more things while there are many other tools that allow you to invest in a much simpler way, with reduced costs and with greater awareness for yourself.

Furthermore, as we have seen, the product has a moderate risk, so you must be able to bear losses, even huge ones. If you don’t find yourself in this situation, perhaps it’s best that you avoid thinking about such a product.

In conclusion, I personally do not suggest you invest using this product, then obviously the final choice is up to you alone, but if you have followed me in the discussion, perhaps you have realized the many costs you would have to bear and the few advantages you would encounter .

If you want to learn more about this topic read my review here.

If, on the other hand, you want to learn more about the investment world to understand how to best manage your savings, here are a series of free resources to read:

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