Cashing in Endowment Policies - timing...

Major_Clanger_2

Hello there - I wonder if I could seek some advice from you knowledgeable financial folks....;)

Both Mrs Clanger and I have endowment policies with Sun Alliance (now Phoenix) taken out in 1993 and 1995 over 25 years. Obviously they are performing very badly and we're looking at either surrendering them or selling them on (whichever pays more), paying off a chunk of the mortgage with the capital and then overpaying using what were our monthly endownment payments...

My question here is one of timing - is there a "good" time of year to sell/surrender these? Bonuses are announced on them on an annual basis (I suppose) and so does one wait until the announcement, or sell well before, or is there in fact no good time to sell/surrender them?

Thanks in advance for your help...

MC

Major_Clanger_2

Any thoughts anyone - any and all guidance will be gratefully received...

Cheers

MC

Dick_here

If you're in one of the so-called 'zombie' funds, then if you're going to surrender do it asap. The next bonus announcement will see bonuses drop further, so stop paying in now.

Major_Clanger_2

Thanks for your reply! Judging by the performance of these policies they're both totally dead rather than the living dead . Out of interest, how would I identify them as "Zombie Funds"?

We've called Phoenix today to get surrender values and I've sent an enquiry to UK Endowments/Endowments Surrender Plus to see if they want to make a better offer.

Is there anything else I should be doing do you think? We've got life insurance sorted elsewhere and neither of these policies is linked to our current mortgage.

Again - thanks in advance for any help.

Dick_here

Major_Clanger wrote: »

Thanks for your reply! Judging by the performance of these policies they're both totally dead rather than the living dead . Out of interest, how would I identify them as "Zombie Funds"?

Ed has a definition of this one, I recall.