Annual Report 2019 Data
In addition to the MLP Group, the following joint management report also encompasses MLP SE.
The values disclosed in the following have been rounded to one decimal place. As a result, differences to reported total amounts may arise when adding up the individual values. Previous year's figures are given in brackets.
Broad range of services
The MLP Group (MLP) is the partner for all financial matters – for private clients, companies and institutional investors. Five brands, each of which enjoys a leading position in their respective markets, offer a broad range of services:
Client requirements in focus
Since it was founded by Manfred Lautenschläger and Eicke Marschollek in 1971, the MLP Group has consistently striven to establish long-term relationships with its clients. This requires profound understanding of their individual requirements. Each of our approximately 1,900 consultants in the private client business therefore focuses on one professional group. MLP's clients primarily include physicians, economists, engineers and lawyers. We support these clients in all financial matters – from old-age provision and wealth management, through health and non-life insurance to financing, real estate brokerage and banking business.
The views and expectations of our clients always represent the starting point in each of these fields. Building on this, we then present them with suitable options in a comprehensible way so that they can make the right financial decisions themselves. For the implementation we examine the offers of all relevant product providers in the market. Our products are selected and rated on the basis of scientifically substantiated market and product analyses.
Transparent partner and product selection process
MLP places great emphasis on the use of objective and transparent criteria and the independence of our product partners when selecting partners and products. An analysis and quality check of the providers in the market, as well as their respective products, are performed on the basis of client requirements. The product selection process is continually improved and optimised.
Further training of key importance
Qualifications and further training of our employees and clients play an important part in our company's ability to ensure sustainably high-quality consulting services. The qualifications and further training offered at the MLP Corporate University, the company's accredited in-house training facility, are considered a benchmark in the financial consulting sector. You can find more detailed information on this in the chapter entitled "Employees and self-employed client consultants".
MLP Banking AG
MLP Banking AG combines the features of a direct bank with consulting services, which are provided by our consultants. It offers banking services to both private and business clients – from accounts, cards, loans and mortgages to wealth management. MLP Banking AG assumes the following role within the MLP Group:
As a financial institution, MLP Banking AG is supervised by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and represents the controlling company of the Financial Holding Group in terms of the supervisory regulations.
MLP Finanzberatung SE
The business activities of MLP Finanzberatung SE focus on providing advisory services to both private and corporate clients on financial issues, as well as brokerage of corresponding products. These are closely intertwined and complement each other. Consulting services include the areas of old-age provision, health insurance, non-life insurance and real estate brokerage.
As an insurance broker, MLP Finanzberatung SE is also committed to selecting the most suitable product options for clients from the broad scope of offers available in the market. These concepts clearly set us apart from the majority of players in the market, who either only offer their own products or a very limited selection of third-party products.
DOMCURA – The non-life insurance specialist
As an underwriting agency, DOMCURA AG provides extensive coverage concepts for private and commercial clients in the non-life insurance consulting fields. DOMCURA offers special expertise in the development and administration of residential building concepts. Approximately 5,000 insurance brokers and insurance sales agents currently use its products.
nordias – Focussing on commercial and industrial insurance products
Nordias GmbH Versicherungsmakler is home to specialist brokers for commercial and industrial insurance products.
FERI – Wealth management with independent research
As an investment house for institutional investors, high net-worth families and foundations, the FERI Group (FERI) offers services in the fields of investment research, investment management and investment consulting. FERI Cognitive Finance Institute, which was founded in 2016, acts as a strategic research centre and creative think tank within the FERI Group with a clear focus on innovative analyses and method development for long-term aspects of economic and capital market research. In the reporting period, FERI AG strengthened and extended its activities in the area of sustainable investments. The FERI SDG Office, which was newly established for this purpose, has since been coordinating all relevant activities at FERI in the area of sustainability and will work to drive forward development of special service concepts and investment solutions. The FERI SDG Office employs a focused approach, paying particular attention to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In the Investment Management business field, FERI Trust GmbH offers a broad spectrum of wealth management services in all asset classes. These services range from the development and implementation of individual investment strategies, right through to quantitative risk spreading and control. Investment consulting involves long-term advisory services to institutional investors and the provision of family office services to high net-worth families. Investment Research draws up economic forecasts and individual asset allocation analyses, which provide an important basis for the investment strategies.
TPC – Sector concepts for occupational pension provision management
As a specialist in occupational old-age provision management, TPC GmbH (TPC) offers companies and associations consultancy services covering all issues relating to occupational pension provision and compensation – from requirements analysis, individual concept development and implementation all the way to continuous checking of existing company old-age provision systems. The key focus here is on providing consulting services to small and medium-sized companies from various sectors, as well as employer consulting services to tax advisers, auditors, solicitors, physicians and architects. In addition, a digital service was established in 2019 in the form of the TPC Portal, which employers can use to provide information on their entire offer and also advise clients with the support of MLP. Employees will also have dedicated access to their contracts via this portal.
DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien – Market place for investment properties
The majority stake in the DI DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien AG (DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien), which was acquired in 2019, has significantly extended both the expertise and the portfolio in the real estate sector. DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien is an independent real estate platform for all classes of investment properties. In the area of senior citizen housing, the company is active as a real estate developer. Alongside direct brokering of real estate to clients, sales via external sales partners also play a key role at DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien. Sales partners can use the real estate portal of DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien to process all steps, from collecting information, producing estimates and making reservations right through to the actual sale and commission calculation. Work on integrating the new companies into the operations of the MLP Group was started directly after closing the transaction and will also continue in 2020.
Represented throughout Germany
The registered office of MLP SE as the holding company, as well as MLP Finanzberatung SE and MLP Banking AG, is in Wiesloch, Germany, where all internal divisions are centralised. In addition to this, we are represented by our client consultants, branch offices and university teams in all German urban centres, including all important university locations. DOMCURA and nordias have their headquarters in Kiel, while TPC operates out of Hamburg. Alongside its HQ in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany, FERI maintains offices in Düsseldorf, Munich, Luxembourg, Vienna and Zurich. DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien has its registered office in Hanover.
MLP is organised as a holding company in which central management duties are performed by the Group's parent company, MLP SE. The five subsidiaries MLP Finanzberatung SE, MLP Banking AG, FERI AG, DOMCURA AG and nordias GmbH are arranged below (see chart). The business divisions each carry end-to-end accountability for results.
MLP Finanzberatung SE is registered as an insurance broker for the brokerage of insurance products. MLP Finanzberatung SE includes TPC GmbH in Hamburg, ZSH GmbH Finanzdienstleistungen (ZSH) in Heidelberg, and MLPdialog GmbH in Wiesloch. Another holding is MLP Hyp GmbH, Wiesloch, which we operate together with the mortgage lending broker Interhyp AG in Munich. Following completion of the transaction on September 2, 2019, MLP Finanzberatung SE now holds a 75.1% stake in DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien and its subsidiaries.
MLP Banking AG holds a banking licence and bundles all banking services for both private and corporate clients.
The business conducted by FERI AG revolves around investment research, investment management and investment consulting for institutional investors, high net-worth families and foundations. These are anchored in FERI Trust GmbH, Bad Homburg v.d.H. FEREAL AG acts as a capital management company for alternative asset classes, such as real estate, private equity and infrastructure. FERI (Switzerland) AG performs various roles from the Zurich location, including acting as an innovation hub for the development and implementation of novel investment approaches for private and institutional investors outside the eurozone. As fund administrator, FERI Trust (Luxembourg) S.A. coordinates the entire fund structuring and fund floating process.
DOMCURA AG specialises in designing, developing and implementing comprehensive coverage concepts in the non-life insurance business field for both private and commercial clients. Nordias GmbH Versicherungsmakler is home to specialist brokers for commercial and industrial insurance products.
MLP Finanzberatung SE, a wholly owned subsidiary of MLP SE, signed a contract on March 19 to acquire 75.1% in DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien. DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien is a marketplace for investment properties and collaborates with around 6,000 sales partners. The comprehensive online platform comprises both third-party real estate projects and, in selected areas, also real estate projects developed in-house - above all in the field of senior-citizen housing and nursing care. The company will continue to pursue and further strengthen this business model. Additional potential results from the interaction between existing business with MLP private clients and the MLP Group overall. The transaction was then concluded on September 2, 2019. Further information in this regard can be found in the segment report.
In the reporting period, Willy F.O. Köster GmbH and Walther Versicherungsmakler GmbH were merged to form nordias GmbH with retroactive effect from January 1, 2019.
Economic developments in Germany have a significant impact on the business model of the MLP Group, as the company generates a vast majority of its revenue in this country. Particularly important nonfinancial performance indicators in this regard are economic growth, developments in the employment market, salary levels and the general savings rate. They are described in further detail in the chapter entitled "Economic report – Overall economic climate".
The results of operations are influenced even more acutely by market conditions in the consultancy areas of old-age provision, wealth management, non-life insurance, health insurance, real estate as well as loans and mortgages, which we analyse in the corresponding chapters of the "Economic report and forecast". Another important factor is the regulatory environment, which is examined in more detail in the chapters "Economic report and forecast – regulation and competition".
The Executive Board at MLP SE comprises three members. The positions on the Board continue to be held by Dr. Uwe Schroeder-Wildberg (Chief Executive Officer), Manfred Bauer (Products and Services) and Reinhard Loose (Finance).
The Supervisory Board at MLP SE unanimously voted to extend the current contract of Manfred Bauer, which runs to April 30, 2020, by five more years to 2025. He is also a member of the Executive Board at the subsidiaries MLP Finanzberatung SE and MLP Banking AG.
The Supervisory Board of MLP SE, which is required to monitor the Executive Board under German law, comprises six members. Dr. Peter Lütke-Bornefeld (Chairman), Dr. Claus-Michael Dill, Matthias Lautenschläger and Tina Müller as representatives of the capital side, as well as Alexander Beer and Burkhard Schlingermann as employee representatives.
With effect from January 1, 2019, Oliver Liebermann was appointed as an additional member of the Executive Board at MLP Finanzberatung SE, where he is responsible for Sales. Responsibility for Sales at the holding company MLP SE, which encompasses the entire private and corporate client business of the MLP Group, will remain with the Chairman of the Board.
Marcel Renné has been Chairman of the Executive Board at FERI AG, which is part of the FERI Group, since April 1, 2019. At the same time his predecessor, Arnd Thorn, stepped down from the Supervisory Board at FERI AG. In addition, the Supervisory Board at FERI AG has extended the contract of Dr. Heinz-Werner Rapp as Chief Investment Officer to November 30, 2023. Rapp also continues to hold his post as Head of the FERI Cognitive Finance Institute. Marcel Renné has made the move from the Executive Board to the Supervisory Board at FERI Trust (Luxembourg) S.A. Marcus Storr, Head of Alternative Investments at FERI Trust GmbH, has taken his place on the Executive Board. Andreas Kuschmann resigned from his position as CEO at FERI Trust GmbH on August 31, 2019.
Following completion of the process to acquire a majority stake in DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilen, Marc-Philipp Unger, formerly Head of Real Estate at MLP Finanzberatung SE, has taken up a position on the Executive Board at DEUTSCHLAND.Immobilien AG. Further members of the Executive Board at the company are Patrick Holze and Sebastian Reccius.
