Life insurance

Percybridge

A family member has just died and the daughter is looking for his life insurance. She recalls that he mentioned paying for some a while back but is not now paying. I would have thought that if he stopped paying the insurance would cease, but she seems to think that the payments stopped at a certain age. He was over 90 when he died. Can this be correct?
Is there a way of finding out other than writing to every insurance company?

lisyloo

I would have thought that if he stopped paying the insurance would cease, but she seems to think that the payments stopped at a certain age.

It could be that it was a "term" policy and he reached the end of the term (that means he's no longer covered).
Commonly this is used for mortgage where the debt itself has a term.

Is there a way of finding out other than writing to every insurance company?

You could look at old bank statements and direct debit payments.
You might find it useful to request a SAR (subject access request) which can be charged at a max £10 under the data protection act.
This might be cheaper than his bank charging you for many years of old statements, but at his age, it's possible he's kept them.

My gut feeling is that if he wasn't paying then cover ceased.

Percybridge

Thanks for this. My gut feeling also is that he is not insured.
But there is something nagging at the back of my head because she mentioned an old fashioned expression I think called penny insurance or something like that.
I would doubt that it would be on the bank statements as I think it was a bloke who called around and collected the "penny".
She seems to recall it being many many years ago. It would not be linked to a mortgage as he inherited the house.
Anyway, thanks again for your help.

lisyloo

Ah ok.
From looking around the net it could be worth something, maybe a few hundred.
However if you don't have the paperwork you are going to have write to all the companies that provide these and then you would be reliant on them all having their paperwork up to date from "a while back".

You first step is to go through all the paperwork in the house.
If you can't find it you then need to decide whether it's worth pursuing, but I wouldn't be confident about the record keeping for these "door-to-door" policies from many years back.

I have often wondered how people manage to work out the finance of others after death, especially if there are many policies involved (I have five pension funds).
So I keep an itinerary but I need to get better at providing someone with it.

dunstonh

A family member has just died and the daughter is looking for his life insurance. She recalls that he mentioned paying for some a while back but is not now paying. I would have thought that if he stopped paying the insurance would cease, but she seems to think that the payments stopped at a certain age. He was over 90 when he died. Can this be correct?

Yes it can be correct.

Many Whole of life assurance plans had a maximum premium paying age. Once you hit that age (typically between 80 and 90) the premiums would stop but the benefits would be retained.

Is there a way of finding out other than writing to every insurance company?

Look at old statements, go through draws, look at what other insurance policies are held. The older generations tended to be more loyal and would put multiple business through one company. So, if they had say pension from xyz insurer then there is a good chance the insurance was with them as well.

But there is something nagging at the back of my head because she mentioned an old fashioned expression I think called penny insurance or something like that.
I would doubt that it would be on the bank statements as I think it was a bloke who called around and collected the "penny".

These were industrial branch policies collected and sold by insurance agents. Typically the likes of Pru, Pearl, Refuge etc. The older generation used to refer to them a penny plans as they were often just pence to pay for (at least before the big inflation years where they increased but were still smaller than modern day).