Life insurance...

martin01

Hello all, this is my first post on these forums and I’d really appreciate anyone’s help/ opinions etc...
My elderly grandmother (from Donegal) was with Irish life for years; she would pay up to a collection doorman something like a £5 each month. However, Irish life was taken over by Royal Liver, (something we only found out today!) and according to my grandmother the man just stopped coming round, and she had no indication why this happened. Being a typical wee granny she waited and waited for something to happen, stuck the papers and documents in the cupboard ...and they've been there ever since.

Now my mum just phoned up and spoke to someone from Royal Liver who more or less stated that my grandmother would only be entitled to around 500 odd quid but if she had being paying until 2 years ago (2007) she would have been eligible to take her lump sum/payout, whatever it’s called, which would have been a good few quid. Now in one of these wee books I can see she has paid up to around 650 odd pounds, I don't know how many of these wee books she got through but it sounds like she had a few. I can't help thinking that my gran’s been the victim of negligence when it came to this takeover. Is there any precedent for this kind of thing, I mean should they not have got in contact with her and explained what was happening?

dunstonh

I can't help thinking that my gran’s been the victim of negligence when it came to this takeover.

Your gran had an industrial branch policy (door collection type). About 10 years ago, the insurance companies started to stop doing collections. The typical approach was for those with very small premiums to be gifted them (usually upto a few pounds per month). The rest were requested to either move to standing order or direct debit.

I can't help thinking that my gran’s been the victim of negligence when it came to this takeover. Is there any precedent for this kind of thing, I mean should they not have got in contact with her and explained what was happening?

she would have been sent multiple letters asking her to switch to DD or SO and other letters reminding her that she was getting into arrears and that the policy would be made paid up if she ceased to pay.

Whilst one letter may have gone missing in the post its unlikely all of them would. So, it is unlikely the insurer has done anything wrong.

The insurer is likely to be sympathetic to the situation as this is not an uncommon scenario. Typically they will agree to reinstate the policy if the back payments are made