Should the demands and needs statement be signed by the client and countersigned by the insurance distributor or should it just include the information obtained from the client and the result of the demands and needs assessment?

Article 20.1, subparagraph 1 of the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) provides that on the basis of information obtained from the customer, the insurance distributor shall specify the demands and the needs of that customer. Recital 44 of the aforementioned directive specifies, in the same vein than Article 20.1, subparagraph 2 of IDD, that any insurance product proposed to the customer should always be consistent with the customer’s demands and needs. 
 
According to Article 23.1 of the IDD, the demands and the needs shall be communicated to the customer on paper. Two derogations from this paper by default regime, are possible: the demands and the needs could be provided by a durable medium other than paper or a website if, in both cases, specific conditions are met (cf. Article 23.2). However, even if one of these derogations has been used by the customer, a paper copy of the demands and the needs test should be provided upon request and free of charge according to Article 23.3 of the IDD.

There is no requirement in the IDD for the specification of the demands and the needs of the customer to be signed by the customer, by the insurance distributor or by both.

However, the presence of the signature of the customer, can be an element which a national competent authority can take into account when assessing if the distributor has specified the insurance demands and needs of the customer as contained in the specification of the demands and needs with a view to ensuring that the insurance product it proposes is consistent with those demands and needs.

Moreover, this requirement for a signature could strengthen the necessity for the insurance distributor to ensure that the demands and needs test is personalised with regards to the analysis of the information obtained from the customer. However, it is important to emphasise that the customer’s signature does not mean that the insurance distributor has in any way delegated to the customer the responsibility of the analysis of the demands and needs assessment: this analysis is only carried out by the insurance distributor, who is responsible for the proposition of products consistent with the customer´s demands and needs as required by the IDD

This answer is without prejudice to the applicable national civil and insurance law.