Phoenix Life - Whole of life with profit insurance policy

[spergen]

Not sure this is the right place but here goes.

 

Just sorting through my elderly mothers finaces and have come across the following insurace pollicy :-  

Phoenix Life - Whole of life with profit.   

 

Now my question to all you clever folk is

was this a banking scam back in the day like PPI Insurance? 

She took the policy out in 1967 and has been paying £4.13 monthly premium ever since.  Thats 56 years!   

 

Now the policy according to her annual statement only pays out £800 on her death. 

 

my small brain cant fathom this, pay £2775.36 into a policy to only get £800 back on her death? 

 

Just think of the interest if that had been a savings account! 

Have asked her to stop paying this but she was adamant if she did then there would be no pay out as she asked this question years ago. 

 

Now she cant find the paperwork but took out another similar policy around a few years later that pays out £2500 for funeral expenses, this costs her £14 PCM.

I just hope this hasnt been for 50 years?   

This was taken over by Liverpool and Victoria who the current D/D goes to 

 

Advice please chaps 

 

 

 

 

[dx100uk]

38 minutes ago, spergen said:

Have asked her to stop paying this but she was adamant if she did then there would be no pay out as she asked this question years ago. 

 

it is totally worthless now if there is anything you actually can do, regarding the above comment, is debateable.

 

they might use that as 'knew it was bogus and should have acted'

 

there is a 3yrs rule 

 

why not send Phoenix Life an SAR.

lets see what policy docs they have and customer notes.

 

i will say one thing.

phoenix are very hot on scam emails supposedly from them about this or that.

shame they dont protect their existing customer that got scammed in the 1960's by themselves!!

 

 

 

 

[spergen]

Thank you, im going to look into this further, will post up what i find just in case anybody else is in the same shoes later. 

Dreading the L&V one though, thats a lot of money......

[Ethel Street]

Get an SAR in but I doubt you'll get much back. The likelihood of sales  notes from 56 years ago still existing is about zero.

 

How old is your mother? 

 

Check if it is true that it would be cancelled if she stopped paying. As it's a Whole Life policy that's probably correct. But if that happened I expect you would lose all the money that has accumulated. 

 

Also check that the accumulated profits have been included in the £800. Sometimes life insurance statements just include the original guanteed amount payable on death and only add the profits when the policyholder has died. I'm wondering if this is what's happened here because thedifference between what's paid in and the £800 seems enormous. I'd certainly expect the with prifits pay out to exceed premiums paid in.

 

When you get the policy remove all personal information and post a copy here.  And of the latest annual statement.

 

Phoenix Life is a traditonal life insurer, one of the oldest in the UK. It has a reputation, and did back in the 1960s, of being a bit traditional and staid but 'scammer' isn't a description you'd usually attach to them. The deal could still have been crap of course!

[unclebulgaria67]

As already suggested, get all of the information first on the 2 policies to find out about their true value at this point.

 

I wonder how many people have these very old financial products they have paid into for decades?

 

Remember that the Direct Debit going through should have reference number related to the policy, so the Bank may be able to help provide some information. Sometimes Insurance companies have difficulties tracing very old records, even though they are collecting DD's.

[Ethel Street]

17 hours ago, Ethel Street said:

Also check that the accumulated profits have been included in the £800. Sometimes life insurance statements just include the original guanteed amount payable on death and only add the profits when the policyholder has died. I'm wondering if this is what's happened here because the difference between what's paid in and the £800 seems enormous. I'd certainly expect the with profits pay out to exceed premiums paid in.

 

On reflection Ithink this may be what's happening here. If 'profits' - ie, the investment income from investing the premiums paid - had been added to the original sum assured it's highly improbable it would come to exactly £800 after 56 years of premiums being invested.  It's far too round a number. More likely that's the original sum assured and the profits haven't been added yet. Contact Phoenix and see what expalanation they give you.

[spergen]

Thanks guys, hopefully that is right about adding the with proffits at the end, kind of makes sence as they wouldnt know the value until time of death?

 

Oh and shes 87 now.

 

Will sort all this once ive finished my accounts for the year end........