The opening of bankruptcy proceedings has the effect of withdrawing from Gable Insurance AG its licence to exercise further insurance activities. The withdrawal of this licence means that each policyholder is entitled to terminate the insurance contract with Gable Insurance AG with immediate effect. If this right of termination is not exercised, the insurance contract will expire four weeks after the announcement of the opening of bankruptcy proceedings, which took place on 18 November 2016. This consequently means that the insurance contracts with Gable Insurance AG will expire at the latest on 16 December 2016. Claims that occur after this date are unlikely to be covered by insurance.

Policyholders are urgently recommended to check their insurance protection, and under certain circumstances to make arrangements for alternative insurance cover.

With the opening of bankruptcy proceedings on 17 November 2016, the entitlement to dispose freely of its assets was withdrawn from Gable Insurance AG. The opening of bankruptcy proceedings covers all insurance contracts. All of the rights and obligations of the policyholders of Gable Insurance AG arising out of their insurance contracts are affected by the opening of bankruptcy proceedings. The consequence of this is that, with effect from the date of the opening of bankruptcy proceedings, the policyholders become creditors of the bankrupt company if they have a claim against this company arising out of the insurance contract. The claims of the policyholders may consist either of premiums that have not yet been used up, or of cover for claims.

The claims of the policyholders are given privileged treatment in bankruptcy proceedings if they have arisen from a loss event. Claims for reimbursement of unused premiums are given preferential treatment, provided that the insurance contract was cancelled before the opening of bankruptcy proceedings. Claims for reimbursement of unused premiums that have arisen due to the opening of bankruptcy proceedings and therefore on or after that date do not constitute privileged insurance claims. These are treated as fourth-class bankruptcy claims.

Persons who are not policyholders but have a claim against Gable Insurance AG under an insurance contract as insured persons or beneficiaries are also creditors of the bankrupt insurance company since the opening of bankruptcy proceedings. Their claims are given privileged treatment in bankruptcy proceedings as they have arisen from a loss event. The same applies to injured third parties if they have a direct right of action against Gable Insurance AG.

The bankruptcy assets accrued out of the insurance premiums constitute special assets from which privileged insurance claims shall be settled on a priority basis. Non-privileged bankruptcy claims will be satisfied only if the privileged insurance claims are fully covered. Persons with privileged insurance claims must be treated equally.

Claims filed in the bankruptcy proceedings, whether privileged insurance claims or non-privileged bankruptcy claims, cannot be satisfied for the present and until further notice. The liquidator must first ascertain the level of the bankruptcy assets. Following this, it must secure the assets. At the same time, the debts also need to be ascertained. This will be done by checking the reported claims. As this process will take a considerable period of time to complete, in view of the large number of policyholders and further parties with claims arising out of insurance contracts, and consequently potential creditors of the bankrupt company, it is not currently possible to ascertain the precise level of the bankruptcy assets. For this reason, it is not at the present time possible to assess to what extent (bankruptcy ratio) it will be possible to satisfy the creditors of the bankrupt company. In this conjunction, the extent to which claims have already been processed is irrelevant. Irrespective of whether a claim has already been settled (but not yet paid), or whether a claim has not yet occurred, all claims arising out of insurance contracts within the same category must be treated equally. However, privileged insurance claims enjoy absolute priority over all other claims. They have a privilege of separate settlement from the special settlement assets (special assets).

As before, you can report your loss to your broker. If this is not possible for whatever reason, please report your loss by e-mail to Gable.Claims@Enstargroup.com.

If your claim (recognised loss or premium refund) is not settled by a national guarantee scheme in your country, please file it using the electronic claim form on our website www.gableinsurance.li.

The bankruptcy of Gable Insurance AG affects about 130,000 policyholders. The Trustee in Bankruptcy is obliged to identify all entitled creditors, on the one hand, and to secure all assets of the company, on the other hand. This will take a lot of time. At the moment, it is impossible to say when this process will be completed.

The answer to this question depends firstly on whether you have asserted an insurance claim. A claim constitutes an insurance claim if you, as policyholder, beneficiary, insured or injured third party with a direct right of action against Gable Insurance AG, assert a claim arising from a loss event or if your claim concerns a premium owed under an insurance contract cancelled before the opening of bankruptcy proceedings. Insurance claims are privileged claims. This means they are satisfied before all other claims.

If your claim is a claim for reimbursement of unused premiums that arose due to the opening of bankruptcy proceedings and therefore on or after that date, it does not constitute a privileged insurance claim but instead a fourth-class bankruptcy claim. Non-privileged bankruptcy claims will be satisfied only if the privileged insurance claims are fully covered.

Whether your claim can be paid and at what ratio also depends on whether the remaining assets of the company are sufficient to cover this. Unfortunately, it is not possible to issue a statement on this at the present time.

That depends on the kind of insurance you have taken out with Gable Insurance AG and your country of residence.

You can find an overview of the various guarantee funds on the aforementioned website under “National Guarantee Schemes”.

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