Insurance broker vs. comparison portal – which is better?

One click, thirty tariffs, sorted by price: German comparison portals feel like maximum transparency. For some policies they genuinely are a useful tool. For others they are the most expensive mistake you can make – you just won't notice until you file a claim. Here is the honest comparison.

First things first: portals are usually licensed brokers themselves

Framing this as "broker or portal" is misleading if you read it as a question of legal status. Germany's large comparison portals are, as a rule, registered as insurance brokers under Sec. 34d(1) GewO in the IHK intermediary register – exactly the same licence we hold. They are not neutral search engines, but they are not a different category of intermediary either.

The difference is not the status but what is made of it. And there the paths diverge sharply:

• Listed are insurers with a remuneration agreement. Several relevant companies (e.g. broker-only or direct insurers) never appear at all.
• Default sorting is by price – not by whether the tariff pays out when it matters.
• Instead of advising, portals typically ask you to sign a waiver of advice under Sec. 61(2) VVG during the online journey. Most people tick it away without reading. Where advice is waived, there is no advice to fall back on later.
• The remaining "advice" consists of filters and star ratings. Whether your occupational disability tariff excludes "abstract referral" is for you to judge.
• After purchase you are the insurer's customer. In a claim, you get the hotline – the portal is out.

And here is the part that surprises most people: the pay is the same. For the same contract a portal generally receives the same commission as a broker who advises you, files the application properly and supports you through a claim. You save nothing by buying through a portal – you merely give up services that have already been paid for.

None of this is a scandal; it's a business model. You just need to know it to use it correctly.

What a classic insurance broker does differently

A German insurance broker licensed under Sec. 34d GewO is legally the client's fiduciary – the Federal Court of Justice has said so consistently. That duty applies to portals too; they simply don't act on it. Three differences matter most:

1. Condition analysis instead of price lists: brokers compare policy wordings – referral clauses, guaranteed increase options, deadlines, health questions. The cheapest tariff only wins if it also survives that check.
2. Advice, and therefore liability: whoever advises is liable for the recommendation, backed by the professional indemnity insurance every intermediary must hold. Whoever takes a waiver of advice under Sec. 61(2) VVG instead has simply not recommended anything to answer for. The selection was yours.
3. Claims support: the broker drafts the claim with you, supplies evidence and negotiates with the insurer. That's when the setup pays for itself.

And the cost? Identical. Commissions are built into premiums on every sales channel. Without personal service you don't pay less – you get less for the same money.

The direct comparison

When the portal is fine – and when it isn't

A portal is okay for standardised products with little advisory depth and manageable damage potential: car liability for a standard vehicle, travel cancellation, perhaps household contents for a studio flat. Even there, details decide (new-value compensation, gross negligence cover) – but price is a legitimate main criterion.

A broker is essential when any of these apply:

• The contract must hold for decades (occupational disability, private health insurance, retirement products).
• There are health questions – wrong answers endanger the entire cover, and a formal rejection lands in the industry's shared risk database.
• Your situation is not standard: self-employed, pre-existing conditions, an imported car without HSN/TSN, business risks.
• A rejected claim would be existential – you want someone negotiating on your side.

Rule of thumb: the longer the contract should last and the worse a rejected claim would hurt, the clearer the case for a broker.

The best of both worlds

The two paths aren't mutually exclusive. We give our own clients an online comparison tool at vergleich.rombey.capital – for everything standardised. The difference: if you find a tariff there, you can ask us whether it's actually good. And for everything existential, we run the full process – from the anonymous risk pre-check to claims support.

Bottom line

Comparison portals are formally insurance brokers, but in practice price lists in self-service mode – useful for standard risks, unsuitable for life decisions. They collect the same commission as a broker who actually advises you. A non-tied insurance broker therefore costs you nothing extra, also compares the tariffs beyond the portals, is liable for the recommendation and stands next to you in a claim. For anything meant to last longer than a holiday, the answer is clear.

Want it specific? Start a non-binding request or book an intro call – 15 minutes are enough for a first honest assessment.