Financial services like investment trusts, insurance enterprises and banks are afforded cost-effective market access by external agents, because of the lack of maintenance of their own distribution networks.

[4] MLP was founded on 1 January 1971 in Heidelberg by the insurance broker Eicke Marschollek and the law graduate Manfred Lautenschläger.

This specialization charged a market gap and they rapidly enlarged the target group on other graduates like budding medical practitioners.

After adding engineers and economists to their target group, the first step for the flotation on 15 June 1988 was taken in 1984, by transforming MLP into an AG.

The corporate headquarters moved from Heidelberg to Wiesloch in 2001 and on 30 July 2001 MLP became part of the DAX as one of the 30 biggest publicly traded companies in Germany and stayed there until 2003.