Issues Regarding Future Income

For background information on this subject, please see: Asset Recovery and Pending Claims

As of March 31, 2017, the Claims Conference had filed 124,569 claims covering real estate and businesses as well as additional claims for smaller types of assets. These smaller claims are being handled separately from the real estate and business claims.

For the real estate and business claims, the German restitution authorities have issued decisions on 113,129 claims, of which 16,446 were approved for the Claims Conference (14 percent).

The German restitution agencies processed the claims on the largest and most valuable properties first. This means, that the properties to be recovered and sold in the future will generate less revenue than previously recovered properties. The income to date includes unique claims such as those relating to the Wertheim family.

Further large part of the processing by the German authorities for real estate claims has taken place and the processing of business assets is now under way. Recovery of a business asset usually generates a compensation payment that is far lower than the value of a recovered real estate claim.

The relevant factors regarding assessment of future income available for allocations are as follows:

  • The success rate to date of decided cases has been approximately 15 percent.
  • Of the real estate and business cases where the Claims Conference has received funds for assets, approximately 40 percent of the cases to date were business claims. However, of the pending cases in these categories, 67 percent are claims for business assets. These are claims which generally only generate a modest compensation payment
  • Future income from the sale of restituted properties and compensation payments will be subject to Goodwill Fund claims. To date, approximately one-third of income of the Successor Organization has been paid or set aside for payments to Goodwill Fund applicants i.e. heirs of the original owners. 

Updated May 10, 2017