[Suicide and life insurance. Evaluation of suicide cases]

A retrospective evaluation of 521 life assurance contracts belonging to 468 persons who had committed suicide within the first 3 years of contract was performed. Contract data such as tarif, sum assured and duration do not differ from those of the other customers. Except for a few there were hardly any persons who acquired life assurance under speculative purposes, such as the intention to gain financial advantages for their relatives at the expense of the community of all insured persons by claiming life insurance benefits after suicide. By means of these results, one can easily state that the 3 years' exemption period according to the German rules and regulations for life assurance is an effective barrier against misuse in case of suicide. The incidence of suicide cases among all mortality cases cannot be established due to peculariarities of the German insurance market. Other evaluations were performed as to age, sex and marital status of the persons involved, the point in time when suicide was performed, the methods chosen and possible motives. Psychiatric problems such as depression and addiction can be found in the past medical history of many persons. The criterium of exclusion of free will was found in 14.4 percent of all cases.