Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35Show full title

Article 18 Boundary of an insurance or reinsurance contract

1. The boundaries of an insurance or reinsurance contract shall be defined in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 7.

2. All obligations relating to the contract, including obligations relating to unilateral rights of the insurance or reinsurance undertaking to renew or extend the scope of the contract and obligations that relate to paid premiums, shall belong to the contract unless otherwise stated in paragraphs 3 to 6.

3. Obligations which relate to insurance or reinsurance cover provided by the undertaking after any of the following dates do not belong to the contract, unless the undertaking can compel the policyholder to pay the premium for those obligations:

(a) the future date where the insurance or reinsurance undertaking has a unilateral right to terminate the contract;

(b) the future date where the insurance or reinsurance undertaking has a unilateral right to reject premiums payable under the contract;

(c) the future date where the insurance or reinsurance undertaking has a unilateral right to amend the premiums or the benefits payable under the contract in such a way that the premiums fully reflect the risks.

Point (c) shall be deemed to apply where an insurance or reinsurance undertaking has a unilateral right to amend at a future date the premiums or benefits of a portfolio of insurance or reinsurance obligations in such a way that the premiums of the portfolio fully reflect the risks covered by the portfolio.

However, in the case of life insurance obligations where an individual risk assessment of the obligations relating to the insured person of the contract is carried out at the inception of the contract and that assessment cannot be repeated before amending the premiums or benefits, insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall assess at the level of the contract whether the premiums fully reflect the risk for the purposes of point (c).

Insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall not take into account restrictions of the unilateral right as referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) of this paragraph and limitations of the extent to which premiums or benefits can be amended that have no discernible effect on the economics of the contract.

4. Where the insurance or reinsurance undertaking has a unilateral right as referred to in paragraph 3 that only relates to a part of the contract, the same principles as defined in paragraph 3 shall apply to that part of the contract.

5. Obligations that do not relate to premiums which have already been paid do not belong to an insurance or reinsurance contract, unless the undertaking can compel the policyholder to pay the future premium, and where all of the following requirements are met:

(a) the contract does not provide compensation for a specified uncertain event that adversely affects the insured person;

(b) the contract does not include a financial guarantee of benefits.

For the purpose of points (a) and (b), insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall not take into account coverage of events and guarantees that have no discernible effect on the economics of the contract.

6. Where an insurance or reinsurance contract can be unbundled into two parts and where one of those parts meets the requirements set out in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 5, any obligations that do not relate to the premiums of that part and which have already been paid do not belong to the contract, unless the undertaking can compel the policyholder to pay the future premium of that part.

7. Insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall, for the purposes of paragraph 3, only consider that premiums fully reflect the risks covered by a portfolio of insurance or reinsurance obligations, where there is no circumstance under which the amount of the benefits and expenses payable under the portfolio exceeds the amount of the premiums payable under the portfolio.