A sensational verdict from the Cassation risks creating havoc in the insurance market. The Court ruled that unit-linked products - products through which it is possible to invest in funds - are not life insurance policies but financial investments, because they do not guarantee the return of the invested capital.
The weight of this distinction is really significant, since life insurance policies enjoy differentiated treatment in terms of taxation and inheritance and cannot be seized or attached.
But the National Association of Insurance Companies downsizes the scope of the sentence, which "does not take a position on the classification of life insurance contracts - reads a note - but refers to a specific case, characterized by the role assumed by a trust company ”.
Therefore, according to Ania, "there are no conclusions in the ruling of the Supreme Court that cast doubt on the connotation of an insurance product with reference to policies with a financial content".
In times of negative rates and low yields, unit-linked companies have had extraordinary success (today they represent more than 30% of the Life market), even if they had already raised doubts from the authorities in the past, precisely because they depart in part from the philosophy insurance by transferring the investment risk to the subscriber.
