ARAG SE
European insurance group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 over 6,100 people worldwide and reported total gross premium income of €2.843 billion in 2024.[3] ARAG is the largest family-owned German insurance group[4] and considered to be the largest legal expenses insurer in the world.[5] At the end of 2024, ARAG managed 13.8 million policies, 9.6 million of which were outside of Germany.[2]
- Renko Dirksen[1]
- Matthias Maslaton
- Wolfgang Mathmann
- Shiva Meyer
- Hanno Petersen
- Joerg Schwarze
 | |
| Type | Societas Europaea (SE) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1935 |
| Headquarters | Düsseldorf, Germany |
Key people |
|
| Products | Insurance |
| Revenue | €2.84 billion (2024)[2] |
Number of employees | 6,148 (2024)[2] |
History
The ARAG Group was founded in 1935 as a legal expenses insurance company under the name of Deutsche Auto-Rechtsschutz-AG (DARAG) by the Düsseldorf entrepreneur and attorney Heinrich Fassbender.[6] With this venture, Faßbender opened the door to a lucrative field of business. His stated founding principle was to make access to justice easier for people: "All citizens should be able to assert their rights, not only those who can afford to do so".[7] Following the expansion of legal expenses insurance beyond the boundaries of straight automotive legal expenses insurance (1948),[8] the company branched out into other segments of the insurance industry in 1962 and began marketing the business concept of legal expenses insurance also outside of Germany.[9]
From 1965 onward, the ARAG Group entered the life insurance business[8] and, from 1985, the health insurance sector,[9] acquiring other insurers for this purpose. The ARAG Krankenversicherungs-AG conducts its insurance business from Munich, the group’s second German location. The life insurance division was sold in 2017, retroactive to January 1, to the Frankfurter Leben Group.[10][11]
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 RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky Architektur + Städtebau.[12][13]
Over the years, further acquisitions and the establishment of international legal expenses insurance companies followed. In response to ongoing internationalization, ARAG was converted into a European Company (SE) in December 2011.[14]
At the end of 2019, ARAG launched business operations in Australia. ARAG Services Australia Pty Ltd acted as an underwriting agency providing legal expense insurance to brokers and intermediaries, including commercial, private, landlord, and online legal policies. In 2025, ARAG withdrew from the Australian market after the business had not developed as expected.[15]
As part of the acquisition of D.A.S. UK from Ergo in 2023, ARAG also took over its law firm in the United Kingdom, further expanding its international business involving in-house lawyers. ARAG had already been present on the UK market since 2006 through its subsidiary, ARAG plc.[16][17]
Structure of the ARAG Group
The majority shareholder and thus principal owner of the ARAG Group is Paul-Otto Faßbender, grandson of the company's founder. Between 2000 and July 2020, he was Chairman of the Management Board and responsible for central Group functions. In 2020, Renko Dirksen became Speaker of the Board of Management of ARAG SE, and in 2025 he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Management. He is also responsible for the Group’s central corporate functions.[1] In July 2020, Paul-Otto Faßbender was elected Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ARAG SE by the company’s supervisory board.[18]
Business areas and companies
The asset and investment management company ARAG Holding SE serves as the parent company and forms the legal head of the group. Its Chairman of the Board is Paul-Otto Faßbender.[19]
ARAG SE (known as ARAG Allgemeine Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs-AG until early December 2011) is the operative holding company of the group and manages the national and international legal protection business. Legal protection insurance has traditionally been ARAG's core business; in addition to insurance, the company also offers other legal services in some countries other than Germany.[20]
ARAG Krankenversicherungs-AG represents the private health insurance segment for Germany.[21] In 2024, the number of fully insured individuals in the health insurance segment was over 107,000.[22]
ARAG Allgemeine Versicherungs-AG functions as the group's composite insurer.[23] It offers several lines of insurance, including liability, household contents, accident, accident annuity, pet health, building, and business insurance. With more than 20 million insured amateur and professional athletes, ARAG Allgemeine is one of Germany's largest sports insurers.[2][24]
International markets
As of 2026, the ARAG group operates in 18 countries (including Germany):[25]
| International subsidiaries of ARAG SE[26] |
|---|
Austria
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Belgium
|
Canada
|
Denmark
|
Finland
|
Greece
|
Ireland
|
Italy
|
Netherlands
|
Norway
|
Portugal
|
Slovenia
|
Spain
|
Sweden
|
Switzerland
|
United Kingdom
|
United States
|
United States
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 (today ARAG USA).[30]
Canada
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.[31][32][33]
United Kingdom
Since the acquisition of the legal insurer D.A.S. UK from Ergo Group in 2023, the British business operates under the name ARAG Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited and is based in Bristol.[17] This company provides a range of before-the-event and after-the-event legal expenses insurance products and services.[34]
The British branch of ARAG was originally founded in 2006 as ARAG plc, an intermediary covering the entire value chain from product development and sales to marketing and underwriting. On the day of its launch, ARAG announced that it had secured the business portfolio of ULR Knebworth.[35] In early 2009, ARAG acquired the legal expenses portfolio of Capita shortly after acquiring ATE Ltd, a specialist after-the-event provider. By 2024, the British branch of ARAG had reached a revenue of over £77 million.[36]
Ireland
ARAG entered the Irish market in 2019 through the acquisition of the Irish operations of D.A.S. Legal Expenses Insurance Company Ltd., establishing its subsidiary ARAG Legal Protection Ltd. in Dublin.[37]
Further subsidiaries
ARAG subsidiaries are also active in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia and Spain.[38]
Sponsoring
Since 2001, ARAG has been the main sponsor of the table tennis club Borussia Düsseldorf and, since 2006, of the German Table Tennis Association.[39][40]