Very low interest rates have also played havoc with life insurance policies, a previously popular alternative to cash deposits. These typically involved paying in for between 10 and 20 years. The guaranteed payout at the end of the term is usually generated by bonds. Low yields have made this much more difficult, and crimped the high profit margins that such products used to produce. Insurers are increasingly switching to unit-linked products instead. Germans are far less likely than Brits to have invested in the two asset classes that have done brilliantly out of quantitative easing: shares and property. Those that own their own homes are generally fixated on paying off the mortgage as soon as possible, not using housing equity to move up the ladder.

https://www.ft.com/content/ba96c8ea-b34a-11e7-aa26-bb002965bce8