Bernhard Achter

Bernhard Achter, the CFO of msg life ag, says there are a few key things that make the German-headquartered business a highly competitive player in the European life and US health and life insurance sector. The biggest is its expertise; it has a deep and ingrained knowledge in terms of its product offering and business processes. Combine that with its top-notch technology applications and its 35-plus years of experience in the industry, and it is a force to be reckoned with. Finally, there is msg life’s innovative product offering, its solid financial position, and its reputation in the market which has attracted a robust and loyal customer base.

msg life offers a focused range of standard software solutions, as well as comprehensive services, which primarily support companies and providers of life insurance and pension schemes. "We have around 300 mathematicians and they have all the product knowledge required to introduce new life insurance products that deliver value to our clients," Bernhard notes.

Bernhard has a background in banking and has worked in the financial and insurance services sector for the most part of his career, before taking on the role with msg life during a challenging period in its journey. "At the beginning of my professional career I have worked in banks and then later I went to work for some consulting and IT companies, like Capgemini where I spent more than 10 years," he explains. "I would say that from the mid-90s onwards, I focused predominantly on the insurance industry. At msg life that’s what we do—we are all about life insurance. The company was in an improvement phase in 2013 and it had a number of financial and economic challenges. When I took on the position in January 2014, my job was to refocus the company, help it to overcome the problems it was facing, and set it up for future prosperous growth.

"Having an outside perspective, I felt the company was very interesting and I was up for the challenge. That was the major reason for joining and taking on the CFO position. It was interesting to help the company to move forward again and I think we have achieved all that we set out to."

Now that msg life is back on a positive path, Bernhard’s focus is to expand the company’s business in the markets in which it already has a presence. Based in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany (near Stuttgart), it also has offices in Munich, Aachen, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, and Cologne, as well as international subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain, and the US.