De Goudse to pay 12.5 million euros to settle exploitative insurance claims

The Dutch insurer De Goudse agreed to pay approximately 12.5 million euros to compensate customers who held exploitative investment insurance policies.

This settlement follows an agreement reached in January 2025 between the insurer and several advocacy groups, including Consumentenbond and the Stichting Woekerpolisproces. The deal required 90 percent of the affected customers to accept their personal settlement offers, a threshold the company has now reached.

These policies, known as woekerpolissen, were sold in the Netherlands from the early 1990s until 2008. Insurers lured customers with promises of high returns but often failed to disclose high management fees that significantly reduced the actual profits. Authorities estimate that roughly seven million of these policies were sold, with a total value of 100 billion euros. In 2018, the Autoriteit Financiële Markten reported that about 2 million of these policies remained active.

ConsumentenClaim will now begin the payout process, which director Stef Smit says could take between three to six months to complete. Sandra Molenaar of Consumentenbond stated that the settlement finally ends a long-running case for many consumers. While the insurer has settled with most major Dutch providers, advocacy groups are still pursuing compensation for customers with policies from smaller firms like ERGO Insurance and KBC groep.