'Beware the ‘Over 50 Sun Life Axa Plan’... blog discussion

Stuart_W

jamesd wrote: »

Stuart_W, prepaid funeral plans are one of the worst deals around, so brace yourself for a Martin blog entry pointing that out.

I have been slated on here before for mentioning these, but given that in 1997 the average funeral cost £1230 and in 2008 it was £2550, I really don't think that paying upfront for a funeral bond is the absolute con so many on here are determined to prove that it is.

It "buys" exactly what pollydan asked for...

pollydan wrote:

I am coming up to 63 and have had ill health and find it impossible to find insurance that is within my financial reach, and was wondering if any of your readers could suggest anything that would cover funeral expenses as I do not want to leave the burden on my family.

..when other insurance may not be available, peace of mind, knowing that no matter what happens to rest of any estate - perhaps in health care costs, nursing homes, even other debts - the funeral will be sorted.

My mum has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the peace of mind her funeral bond provides her with is more valuable than any monetary advantage or disadvantage. No matter what happens, she knows it's sorted. That is why it's worth every penny.

cepheus

jamesd wrote: »

Wrong tables. Those are period, not cohort, tables and aren't suitable for this purpose. I linked to the appropriate cohort tables for the latest central projection for the UK. As the Government Actuary's Department explains:........

The tables you linked to are appropriate for looking at the past but not for looking at the future.

Indeed, thanks for this, I think those life expectancy tables were out of date anyway hence the other reason for the low estimates. Based on your cohort tables, I think the break even age is about 84 male 86 female?

mycar37

bigbloke45 wrote: »

It's a "Whole Life Non Profit" assurance which is guaranteed to pay out on death whenever that my occur, EXCEPT that it only returns premiums paid if you die before two years; this is how they are able to offer "no medical details required".

So, the old adage is "Only those that want life insurance can't buy it". The plan's no good if you are in ill health because of the two year "moritorium" on payouts and no good if you are in good health because of the low sum assured.

Michael Parkinson should be ashamed of himself! :mad:

I agree 100% with these comments. Michael Parkinson and others like him who sell their souls to these spurious and rip-off compnies
should hide their heads in shame. Michael Parkinson knows full well what he is doing and to think that he is doing it to people in his own age-group is despicable.

mjm3346

Instead of waiting until you are 50 stick the £6/month away from your early forties then when you reach 50 you will already have saved more than a 50+ plan pays out and the interest and a small "top-up" each year (nothing like £6/month) should keep you well ahead of any plan payout and inflation.

henpecked1

a whole of life policy bog standard will offer better benefits.

oakhouse13

Avoid products advertised by celebrities. The company is paying more to market the product. It will have less money left to make the product itself any good.

JackieB123_2

After the death of my mother in 2000, my stepfather was quite concerned that no financial burden be placed upon anyone in the event of his own death. So a timely sales call from Axa Sunlife meant him taking out a policy with them.

He is now 79 and has been paying £14 (well I pay this for him actually) since May 2001, and the sum assured will be £1395. Therefore we have now paid in much more than we will get back. Whilst I understand perfectly that this was not an “investment”, so did not expect to make a profit on this policy, it would have been nice to now receive some form of option to reduce the payments slightly. Axa/Sunlife would still therefore make a profit, but would do so with slightly more moral ground.

If we cashed this policy in now, I believe we would get back approx £500, so as Martin says, is it worth it at this stage? However, my stepfather could live for another 10/15 years (God willing), which would mean he’d paid an extortionate amount for no peace of mind, as the funeral costs would certainly exceed the sum assured by miles. Even now, the amount would not cover the costs, so where's the "peace of mind" ?

He was not in ill health when taking out this policy, so there was no need really for such a choice of policy with no medical required. I was not aware at the time that he was taking this out, and so had no opportunity to research this at the time, I only took over the payments a couple of months after. But when I’ve discussed this with him, he’s adamant that it was not clearly pointed out to him at the time that he could pay much more in that would be paid out. I have the letter that was sent to him welcoming him, and there was no mention of this important point at all, even though it’s a 2 sided letter with lots of information on the benefits of the policy only. However I’m sure it’s in the small print in the enclosed brochure.


I have to quote one point they did make in the letter: “You’ll enjoy real value for money – the affordable payments will never under any circumstances be increased, your high life cover will never go down.”

Well I think that’s quite misleading when it says “real value for money” & “high” life cover, or if not mis-leading, certainly very “over optimistic” shall we say!

There was another page enclosed with the welcome letter stating: “WARNING – The Plan is designed to provide a lump sum when you die. If you cash it in you could get back less than you have paid in”

Again, no mention that you could end up paying much more than you would get back, which I think would certainly necessitate the use of the word “WARNING”.

I must re-iterate that I don’t expect to make a profit on premiums paid in, but to end up paying what will probably be twice as much as you would receive back is over the top.

I will contact Sun Life to see if the payments can now be reduced, they’ve already made a more than fair profit on my stepfathers' policy and will continue to do so even with reduced monthly premiums, but I’m sure the answer will be in the negative.

Tryingtogetsorted

I don't think you need to be a financial genius to work out that the Sun Life over 50s scheme is a load of !!!! and shame on Parkie for advertising it.

What really annoys me about this scheme is the amount of sales material they send out. Clearly they don't have an environmental policy. At one point it seemed I was getting at least one letter at week, which got worse when I started sending it back! I know I'm not the only one who has been annoyed by this as I met a kindred spirit on Facebook!

In the end I found a phone number which you can call to get yourself removed from their mailing list. If you are sick of receiving their "spam", which is what it is, you can phone 0800 9047652 and asked to be removed too. You will need to quote a number which is on their letters. I called about a month ago, and since then haven't received a single letter. Hurrah!

:j

EmehEm2005

I have just had a letter from Santander acting for AXA Sunlife whereby I can get a 'free' gift worth at least £50 (a 16" LCD Freeview TV from ARGOS is one of the free gifts available) in the form of ARGOS or M & S vouchers if I take out whole of life cover with them.
I would get the free gift worth at least £50 one month after AXA receive my first minimum premium of £6 a month although I think the first month is free. I can cancel the policy at any time in writing after only the first premium is paid and still keep the free gift worth at least £50 but for the first two years my estate would only receive 1.5 times the monthly premium paid in case of death.
For £6 a month after two years my life cover would be £715.

EmehEm2005

My credit union - in line with other credit unions - offer free Loan Protection Insurance and Life Savings Insurance
Loan Protection Insurance is designed to pay off a member’s outstanding loan balance if they die before their loan is repaid.
Life Savings insurance means that if a member dies, the savings that they have in the credit union are up to doubled and passed onto their family.
Terms and conditions apply so contact your local credit union for details.
You can also find more information on the ABCUL (Asscn of British Credit Unions Ltd) website.