I heard you could take over the payments or 'buy' other people's life cover ?how

chick54

I heard you could take over the payments or 'buy' other people's life insurance policies they can't afford any more. Where can I find out more?
Is this likely to be a good investment? (of course one doesn't know when one's going to get paid out!)
Can't see a mention anywhere - can anyone help?

dunstonh

I'm not a fan. The reasons why endowments ceased to be available for new business was that they were expensive and better options were available. Plus bolting on life cover generally made the product inefficient (an ISA with decreasing term assurance would always be better in tax, charges and investment choice).

So, if they are no good for people buying them first hand then I dont see many being very good second hand.

There is a niche market that picked a lot of these up and used them as an alternative to gilts by more or less focusing on the surrender penalties and not paying that plus a tiny return being the main reason to have one. However, they tended to be on bulk and not at individual consumer level.

of course one doesn't know when one's going to get paid out

You know the maturity date.

lr1277

I think you are thinking about endowment policies, especially traded endowment policies.

I have no experience in this area, so you could do more research on the internet.

A link I found using google is:

http://www.moneyextra.com/guides/traded-endowment-policies-011460.html