[The assessment of free volitional competence in cases of suicide with life insurance].

The German insurance law stipulates that in cases of suicide, life insurance providers are not obligated to pay within a restriction period of 3 years, except if it can be proven that the suicide was committed in a state that precludes the insured's ability to make free choices. The relevant psychiatric assessment criteria are identical with those of mental and volitional competence in general. However, a different profile of patients and other disorders are involved, mainly depressive syndromes, but also chronic alcoholism as well as schizophrenic and paranoid syndromes. The assessment has to be based on the legal concept of mental disorder, which is different from the current diagnostic classifications in psychiatry. Decisive psychopathological symptoms are impairment of reality control, of volition and/or of judgement. These posthumous assessments are particularly difficult and require a thorough knowledge of psychopathology as well as of the relevant jurisdiction. The latter is summarised in this article.