ARAG SE
ARAG SE is a European insurance group. ARAG stands for Allgemeine Rechtsschutzversicherungs Aktiengesellschaft. "SE" stands for "Societas Europaea". Its headquarters are located in the ARAG-Tower in Düsseldorf. 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 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 by the Düsseldorf entrepreneur and attorney Heinrich Fassbender. With that venture, Faßbender opened the door to a lucrative field of business. His stated founding principle was as follows: "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, 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 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.