Life Insurance Problems

FayteJWJ

Hi Guys,

My mum is with prudential for Life Insurance however they recently sent a letter to her stating that after April she will no longer be covered by the policy she has taken out.

All the money she has paid in will basically be worth nothing.

After a phone call to the prudential today they have told her the prudential was not offering the policy anymore. We were told to speak to a financial adviser which my mother doesn't have one.

When the policy was sold to her 20+ years ago she was not under the impression that she would lose all the money she has put into this.

Is there anything we can do to take this further or get the money back from the prudential?

Thanks in advance.

roguebrogue

I highly doubt you'll get the money back if it was just straight life assurance. That's how most plans works, you pay for the protection and if you don't claim you won't get any of the money back.

lisyloo

FayteJWJ wrote: »

All the money she has paid in will basically be worth nothing.

If we are correct in understand that this is just a life insurance policy.
Then she has purchased insurance and not a savings plan.
The way it works is that you get a payout if you die but nothing if you live.
It's to cover the loss of income if you die.

We were told to speak to a financial adviser which my mother doesn't have one.

Who did she buy the policy from?
I appreciate it was 20 years ago so she may have moved or they might not exists anymore.

When the policy was sold to her 20+ years ago she was not under the impression that she would lose all the money she has put into this.

It sounds like she mis-understood.
Theorectically she could have a mis-selling case, but I would think it's unlikely.
She would have to prove the documentation didn't explain it (does she have that from 20 years ago??) and that she didn't need it (which is unlikely if she had family).

I'm afraid that it's much more likely that she either didn't read and/or didn't understand properly.

Is there anything we can do to take this further or get the money back from the prudential?

Can you clarify exactly what type of policy it is e.g. level term assurance? endowment? etc.
Is there any paperwork.

My gut feeling is probably not because it sounds like she has bought paid for insurance, but in your posisiton I would want to establish exactly what she did buy.

Also look on the bright side - she survived the 20 years :j
I'm not being sarcastic but sometimes you have to put things into perspective.

If you can give more info about the type of policy she ahs it would help.

dunstonh

Prudential closed their own salesforce many years ago. Now they tell you to use an IFA and will supply the details of 3 local IFAs if you ask them.

Pure life assurance is a bit like car insurance, house insurance etc. They pay out if you claim but you get nothing if you dont. Endowments used to pay out lump sums but then the life assurance figure would have been massively lower (about 15-20% of the sum assured on a pure life policy).

It is unlikely that a mis-sale complaint would be upheld in this area unless your mum had no financial need for life assurance at point of sale (e.g. single with no financial dependents). It would "smell" like an attempt to try and get money back as there was no claim. In other words, a try it on complaint rather than a genuine one.