Insurance in Brazil

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Insurance in Brazil

In Brazil, marketing of insurance products by companies is prohibited unless they have authorisation from the Insurance Supervisor (Superintendencia de Seguros Privados).

Personal Insurance (Seguros de Pessoas)

The provision of personal insurance policies is relatively restricted in Brazil. However, the recent opening of the reinsurance market, together with the economic stability achieved since 1994, has generated significant improvement and development of personal insurance contracts in Brazil. This has led to an increasing presence of subsidiaries of financial and insurance multinationals in Brazil.

Insurance policies are becoming more available in Brazil for people all levels of income. These range from limited coverage policies (for example, personal injuries and death) to more sophisticated policies covering anything from damages to illness.

The type of insurance policy and the cover provided will depend on the insurance company and the needs of the person insured. As a general rule, there is a waiting period of one year before any damages can be claimed by the insured person.

• See The AngloFILE for Brazilian Insurance: Car, Home, Life

Damage Insurance

The provision of damage insurance in Brazil is not widespread in comparison to more developed markets, except in the cases of compulsory insurance.

Compulsory Insurance

Insurance is compulsory in some circumstances. The most important are:

• Compulsory insurance against personal injury caused by motor vehicles (Danos Pessoais Causados por Veículos Automotores de Vias Terrestres - DPVAT) 
• Insurance against fire for properties (Seguro complementar contra fogo) 

The Danos Pessoais Causados por Veículos Automotores de Vias Terrestres (DPVAT), which means "personal injury caused by road vehicles", is compulsory limited third-party insurance cover included in the Brazilian road tax. 

This is sometimes referred to as Seguro Obrigatrio or compulsory insurance. This ensures all vehicles have minimum third-party cover and victims of road accidents will receive damages or compensation for serious injuries or death caused by an otherwise uninsured vehicle regardless of culpability. It is operated by The Federation of National Private Insurance and Capitalisation Firms (FENASEG).

• DPVAT
  Tel: 0800 022 1204 (national information line)
  Website (in Portuguese)

Health Insurance

Health insurance in Brazil is provided by the Single Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde), which is public, and supplementary health cover made up of plans and private health insurance.

Supplementary health insurance is necessary to ensure the coverage of costs and treatments provided by the private health system, and is available to any person resident in the country.

The health insurance plans in Brazil are strictly regulated, with mandatory minimum coverage and price controls.

Therefore, due to the level of state intervention in this market, the supply of individual plans has been increasingly restricted, to the detriment of collective plans, administered and/or employed by companies and subject to less restrictive rules.

In any case, in Brazil, the public health system is universally offered, and can be used by residents, non-residents and any person in need of medical care.

• See The AngloFILE for Health & Medical Insurance

Information prepared by João Marcelo Máximo Ricardo dos Santos, Demarest e Almeida Advogados
Av: Pedroso de Moraes 1201, 05419-001 Sao Paulo/SP - Brazil
Tel: (11) 3356 1825 - Fax: (11) 3356 1700
e-mail - Website
Copyright © 2009 Demarest e Almeida Advogados All Rights Reserved