ARAG SE is an European
insurance group
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to Hedge ( ...
. ARAG stands for ''Allgemeine Rechtsschutzversicherungs Aktiengesellschaft''. "SE" stands for "
Societas Europaea
A ''societas Europaea'' (, ; "European society" or "company"; plural: ; abbr. SE) is a public company registered in accordance with the corporate law of the European Union (EU), introduced in 2004 with the Council Regulation on the Statute f ...
". Its headquarters are located in the ARAG-Tower in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
. The ARAG Group employs almost 4,700 people worldwide.
The Group reported total gross premium income of €2.02 billion in 2021. ARAG is the largest family-owned German insurance group, with a legal insurance portfolio of 4.7 million policies in the 2021 business year. The Group's international
legal insurance
Legal protection insurance (LPI), also known as legal expenses insurance (LEI) or simply legal insurance, is a particular class of insurance which facilitates access to law and justice by providing legal advice and covering the legal costs of a di ...
business accounts for 2.9 million policies alone, making it the largest legal insurer in the world.
The Group's total insurance business was 12.2 million policies in 2021, 8.4 million of which were outside Germany.
History
The ARAG Group was founded in 1935 as legal insurance company under the name of Deutsche Auto-Rechtsschutz-AG (DARAG) by the Düsseldorf entrepreneur and attorney
Heinrich Fassbender
Heinrich Fassbender (24 May 1899 – 22 June 1971) was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and former member of the German Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only fe ...
. With that venture, Faßbender opened the door to a lucrative field of business. His founding principle: "''All citizens should be able to assert their rights, not only those who can afford to do so".'' Following the expansion of legal insurance beyond the boundaries of straight automotive legal insurance (1949), the company branched out into other segments of the insurance industry in 1962 and began marketing the business concept of legal insurance. The ARAG Group entered the life assurance business in 1965 and issued its first health insurance policies in 1985, having acquired other insurance companies in that segment. These firms are based in Munich, the second German location of the ARAG Group. Other international legal insurance companies have been acquired over the years. The ARAG Group now is active in a total of 19 countries - including the US, Canada and Australia.
In 2001, the Group occupied new corporate headquarters in the ARAG Tower in Düsseldorf, a building designed by
Lord Norman Foster
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
and the Düsseldorf firm of Architektur + Städtebau. The Group has been an active
sponsor of numerous clubs and associations, primarily in Düsseldorf, for many years.
Structure of the ARAG Group
ARAG Allgemeine Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs-AG is the operational management company for the Group and manages the legal insurance business in Germany and abroad. The composite and health insurance lines are managed by separate insurance companies. is the majority shareholder in the ARAG Group. Between 2000 and July 2020, he was Chairman of the Management Board and responsible for central Group functions. Renko Dirksen replaced him in that position in July 2020. He is supported by Management Board members Matthias Maslaton, Wolfgang Mathmann, Hanno Petersen, Joerg Schwarze, and Werenfried Wendler. Paul-Otto Faßbender was elected by the Supervisory Board of ARAG SE as its Chairman in July 2020.
North American history
In the United States, ARAG USA was originally founded in 1973 as a division of Midwest Mutual Insurance Company and began creating, marketing and administering a new group legal product. In 1989, ARAG purchased the organization and created ARAG Insurance Company.
In 2016 ARAG entered the Canadian market as an insurance intermediary. Since then, ARAG Canada has grown, not least through the purchase of DAS's Canadian operations in 2021 with premiums under management of €18.9 million.
ARAG Legal Services UK
ARAG UK was founded in 2006 as an intermediary covering the entire value chain - from product development and sales to marketing and underwriting. 3 of its founding managers still work in the business; Tony Buss as Managing Director, David Haynes as Underwriting and Product Director and Andy Talbot as Head of Sales & Marketing. It has grown since into a company of over 150 employees and premiums under management of £50m. On the day of its launch, ARAG announced that it had secured the business portfolio of ULR Knebworth. In early 2009, ARAG acquired the legal expenses portfolio of Capita shortly after acquiring ATE Ltd, a specialist after-the-event provider. ARAG UK provides a range of before-the-event and after-the-event legal insurance products and services.
ARAG in Australia
End 2019, ARAG launched business operations in Australia. ARAG Services Australia Pty Ltd operates as Underwriting Agency and offers innovative legal expense insurance products targeting insurance brokers and other intermediaries. The product range comprises both commercial and private legal expense insurance products as well as landlord and Web legal expense insurance.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arag Group
Financial services companies established in 1935
Insurance companies of Germany
Companies based in Düsseldorf
German brands
Online legal services