We care about your employees

Our working relationship with clients was again of key importance for elipsLife in the year under review. We aim to listen to our clients, understand their needs and find the right solutions for them. Feedback shows that clients perceive us as reliable, flexible and solution-oriented. This is confirmed by the extremely high client retention rate we have achieved. We will continue to make every effort to further strengthen our focus on the market and on clients in the future.

The success of elipsLife is largely thanks to our combination of cost consciousness and high-quality services. The generic, globally scalable IT platform plays a key role here. It allows us to reuse investments across borders and thus greatly reduce our operating costs. Meanwhile, we were able to further automate administrative, non-client-related processes, resulting in additional efficiency gains.

We continued to pursue our expansion strategy in 2019. In Italy, for example, we reached the break-even point after only three years. In the US, where elipsLife only started its business activities in 2019, we can also look back on an encouraging business performance. In the area of group insurance, we succeeded in establishing business relationships with more than 40 brokers in the Midwest, East Coast and Southwest, and were able to close our first deals.

In the Switzerland/Liechtenstein market, we took a major step into French-speaking Switzerland by concluding an important contract. In the Benelux market, we managed to enter new market segments: we launched a new disability insurance product in the Netherlands and successfully entered the captive reinsurance market.

In 2019, the total premium volume rose to USD 1157.5 million, up from USD 1115.3 million in the prior year. In our strategic core business alone, we recorded growth of 14.6%, with an increase from USD 411.7 million to USD 472.0 million. The core markets of Switzerland/Liechtenstein, with approximately 8.6%, and Benelux, with approximately 15.5%, contributed in particular to this strong premium growth. The new markets of Italy, the US, Germany and Ireland also made a contribution to the very positive growth overall, in some cases with significantly larger premium volumes. Outside our core business, the premium volume in USD declined slightly due to currency effects: in the year under review, the Irish Medex health insurance business recorded a decline in US dollars of 18.1 million, to USD 685.5 million. Overall, the balance sheet total in 2019 rose to USD 2243.4 million, up from USD 1859.2 million in the prior year.

Our strong growth and successful expansion into new markets in 2019 stood in contrast to our profitability performance and considerable set-up costs in the new markets. While we improved profitability in the Switzerland/Liechtenstein market in daily sickness benefit business, we did not succeed in achieving this in accident business. The high number of claims led to a technical loss in disability insurance. We also recorded a decline in the technical result in one line of business in the Netherlands. These aspects combined resulted in a total loss of USD 23.4 million in the year under review.

We will draw the necessary lessons from our business performance. Working closely with clients and brokers, we aim to further enhance the quality of our contract portfolio while also strengthening our underwriting discipline. Especially in the Switzerland/Liechtenstein market, it is of key importance for us to overcome the profitability problems in accident insurance business.

Ever since elipsLife was founded, its strategy has been aimed at growth through the acquisition of new business. The next phase will now be characterised by a combination of growth and a focus on profitability. With Swiss Re’s ongoing full support, we will deploy our resources efficiently and will continue to expand into new markets.

The step from start-up to established company has already led to some adjustments, and others will follow. This holds true for management as well as the positioning and orientation of business in the markets and the further optimisation of processes. Also, the mature elipsLife will maintain its momentum and innovative spirit.

All figures comply with the United States’ Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Edition 03.2024

It is a central concern of elipsLife that your data is handled responsibly. In this privacy policy, we explain how and for what purpose we obtain and process your personal data that we collect via the elipsLife website, www.elipsLife.com, and associated services (hereinafter also referred to as the “website”) and which statutory data protection rights you have.

1. Data controller
The data “controller” is Elips Life Ltd, Industriestrasse 56, 9491 Ruggell, Liechtenstein and its branch offices (collectively “elipsLife” or “we” or “us”). Elips Life Ltd is part of the International division of the Swiss Life Group.
Should you have any questions regarding this information or how elipsLife processes your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at compliance@elipslife.com.

2. What data we collect when you use our website
When you access our website, elipsLife collects the following data:
- Your contact details, such as name, address, telephone number and e-mail address
- Information you can give us when you contact us
- If you accept cookies, please read our Cookie Policy

3. Cookies, web tracking and similar technologies
When you visit our website, we automatically collect information such as your IP address (the unique address that identifies your device from all others on the internet), the type of device you use (e.g. tablet, phone or PC), and cookies from your device.
Our website contains web technologies that collect information from your movements on our website and the information you enter. We use this information to improve the design of our website and the services we provide to you by improving the customer experience.
Cookies are also used to compile anonymous website usage statistics, prevent fraud and measure the effectiveness of our services.
For more information about cookies and web tracking, see our Cookie Policy.

4. For what purposes we use your data
Together with carefully selected third parties, we collect and use your data to comply with our legal obligations and use it for the following legitimate business purposes:
- To communicate with you about products you own or services you use;
- To detect and prevent fraud and other criminal offences;
- To verify your identity when you contact us or use our services;
- To find out your views on our services;
- To conduct statistical analyses and to develop and improve the products and services we offer;
- To operate, test and secure our IT systems, offices and facilities;
- To maintain our accounts and records;
- To investigate and handle complaints and to answer queries.
We keep the amount of data collected and the extent of processing to the minimum required to fulfil these legitimate business purposes.

5. Retention period
Your data will only be retained for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and as long as we are legally or contractually obliged to retain it.

6. Parties with whom we share data
As required, we will only pass on your personal data as follows:
- to other Swiss Life International companies or companies affiliated to us
- to affiliated companies, including reinsurance companies, and our other suppliers and service providers (for the services offered to us; see the list of service providers)

7. Where we transfer data to
elipsLife may also transfer your data to other countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). According to the Federal Council, these states guarantee secure and trustworthy data protection.

8. Automated decision-making and profiling
We do not carry out any profiling or make automated decisions for the users of our website.

9. Your rights
You have certain rights as defined by the relevant legal conditions and framework. You have the right:
1. To request information from us as to whether and which data we process about you;
2. To request that your data be corrected by us if it is inaccurate;
3. To request that we delete your data if we are not obliged or entitled to process it further;
4. To object to our processing of your data (this generally makes it impossible to provide services);
5. To ask us to hand over certain personal data in a conventional electronic format or transfer the data to another controller.
If you wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us in writing at compliance@elipslife.com or by post (Elips Life Ltd, Compliance, Industriestrasse 56, LI-9491 Ruggell).
If you are not satisfied with the information provided, you can also contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), Feldeggweg 1, 3003 Bern (e-mail: info@edoeb.admin.ch) or the Data Protection Office (DSS), Städtle 38, P.O. Box 684, LI-9490 Vaduz (e-mail: info.dss@llv.li).

10. Updating our privacy policy
elipsLife reserves the right to modify this privacy policy without prior notice to take account of current statutory provisions and changed business procedures. We will actively inform persons whose contact details are registered with us about major changes as and when they occur, provided this is possible without disproportionate effort. As a general rule, the data protection declaration in its current version at the start of processing applies for data processing. This data protection declaration does not form part of the contract.

Last update: October 2023