DiKE Bilanzrecht für Lebensversicherungsunternehmen

Accounting rules, as created by the private associations IASB (IFRS) and FASB (US GAAP), are in a dynamic, global reform process. The ongoing reform work is additionally 'overtaken' by the regulatory consequences of the recent financial market crisis, which have an impact on accounting aspects. Against this background, this Bernese dissertation takes up a sub-area of the topic that has so far been neglected in the legal literature. It presents Swiss accounting law for the individual financial statements of life insurance companies as a whole system. The considerations are limited to the balance sheet under commercial law for life insurance outside the occupational pension scheme and exclude the consolidated balance sheet. In Switzerland, the commercial balance sheet of insurance companies also serves as the basis for insurance supervision. Unless the insurance supervisory law provides for special legal regulations that take precedence over the Code of Obligations, the balance sheet law for insurance companies follows the provisions of commercial law. The study illuminates the tension between the applicable principle of prudence under commercial law and the international principle of fair value. Furthermore, it shows the peculiarities that result from the insurance business as such, and in particular from the life insurance business, and that characterize accounting law to a particular extent. This practical presentation is intended to form a basis for the application and further development of the law, both under the current legal framework and with regard to possible innovations in accounting law and insurance supervisory law.