Which insurance company to choose?
In a new country, choosing an insurance company can be extremely difficult. You will want to know who they are and what they cover, maybe even what their pay-out history has been like.
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By Bente D. Knudsen
A few large players dominate the Danish insurance market for damage insurance (private property, home, car, accident etc.).
The four largest companies have a combined market share of 56 percent; Tryg (18 percent), Topdanmark (17 percent), Codan (11 percent), and Alm.Brand (10 percent) and with only ten companies accounting for 86 percent of the total market, it is a highly concentrated one.
Of course, Denmark is a small market, and the larger companies are part of larger Scandinavian or international insurance groups.
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If you go to your bank, you will most likely be offered to take out insurance with them.
However, none of the Danish banks have their own insurance companies – they all subcontract the handling to one of the big ones. Danske Bank’s insurances are run by Danske Forsikring – which is part of the insurance company TopDanmark.
Nordea also cooperates with an insurance company to handle their offers, in this case, with Tryg, and a range of smaller banks all cooperate with the same insurance company, forsikringsselskabet privatsikring.dk – which is run by Codan.
These insurance companies are open to all consumers in need of an insurance.
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Apart from these larger corporate and often stock-listed companies, you can find smaller, member-owned insurance companies.
One such company is the insurer LB Forsikring. The name is derived from Lærerstandens Brandforsikring and is an insurance company founded and owned by teachers. It has been named “Best in test” by the consumer watchdog Tænk several years in a row for a number of their different types of insurance such as their home insurance.
The hitch is that only people in certain professions can be become members. You can find an extensive list on their website. They also run the insurance companies Bauta and Runa – again these are only for certain professions; however, they sometimes have a back entrance to get in.
For instance, you can take out any policy you want with Runa if you have a veteran bil car insurance policy with them – in Denmark, a veteran bil is a car that is more than 50 years old.
It can be worthwhile to check if your profession enables you to place your insurances in one of the companies recommended by Tænk.
Recently Tænk named LB Forsikring (including Bauta and Runa) and Alka Forsikring as best in their test of certain kinds of insurance.
Alka Forsikring is open to all consumers but has special deals if you are a member of one of their partners from the Danish trade unions.
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The 15 largest damage insurers (Skadeforsikring)
Top four
Tryg 22,7.8 %
Topdanmark 15,8 %
Codan 8,5 %
Alm.Brand 8,9 %
Fifth to Fourteenth
Gjensidige Forsikring 6,7 %
IF 5.5 %
Sygesikring Danmark (only health/accident) 5.6 %
LB Forsikring 4,9 %
Alka 4.0 %
PFA Pension(only health/accident) 3.8 %
GF Forsikring 4.0 %
Danica Pension (only health/accident) 2.4 %
Købstædernes Forsikring 2.2 %
Himmerland Forsikring 0.8 %
Sønderjysk Forsikring 0.7 %
(Market shares in percent of total paid damage policies ( Skadesforsikring) – latest figures 2021/Source: Forsikring og Pension)