Income protection Policy

darkone

Hi
I don’t know where I stand with a Income Protection Policy that I took out with Canada Life and need some advice please.

I am self-employed married with no children. In 2000 I took out an Income protection policy that would cover me if I was injured or could not work through illness. The policy expires in two years time when I am 60.

The policy was sold to me via an agent for CL.

I have recently discovered that I could have taken out a “no claims refund” option that would have given me a 50% refund when the policy expired.
Reading through the policy document that was issued to me at the onset of the policy, I find no reference to a “no claims refund”

After discussing this with my wife who sat in with the agent and me when the policy was taken out, neither of us can remember being advised of a "no claims refund". I feel that I was not given full advice.

So it now looks if I will have paid into the policy for all these years not to get any “no claims refund”.

My rough calculations are that I have paid approx £18000 into the cover, it would be nice to get a little back.

My question is, can I challenge the company over this and where do I stand?

Each year the premium has gone up by a fixed rate of 5% and I am now paying approx £120 a month, this covers me for about £1500 per month Income protection, deferred for 13 weeks.

kingstreet

What does the sales documentation say about it?

Amongst the literature, is there a report which sets out the reasons for the "adviser's" advice and recommendations?

darkone

I have a bit of egg on my face here for not providing the full facts. I have delved deeper into my policy.
It looks like I originally took out a Health Master policy (Income protection) with Abbey Life back in the early 90’s. Which was somehow linked with Allied Dunbar. Then it seems the policy was then taken over by Canada life, which is where my first post came in.
I have no literature other that a letter from Abbey Life informing me that they were giving up taking new policies and that Allied Dunbar would be taking over
So it seems I have paid out an awful lot more to these companies

dunstonh

I have recently discovered that I could have taken out a “no claims refund” option that would have given me a 50% refund when the policy expired.

How much extra would that option have cost?

After discussing this with my wife who sat in with the agent and me when the policy was taken out, neither of us can remember being advised of a "no claims refund". I feel that I was not given full advice.

Were you actually given advice? Advisers give advice but sales clerks do not. If you didnt use an adviser then you wouldnt get advice.

My question is, can I challenge the company over this and where do I stand?

It wouldnt have been a free option. It would have cost more. Probably a lot more.

darkone

dunstonh wrote: »

How much extra would that option have cost?

It was never offered to me an option as the original policy was with Abbey life, I believe they did not have this option. The "no claims refund" option was/is with Canada life, as I said they never offered or pointed this out to me when they took over the policy from Abbey/Allied Dunbar

dunstonh wrote: »

Were you actually given advice? Advisers give advice but sales clerks do not. If you didnt use an adviser then you wouldnt get advice.

Not a sales clerk but an independant advisor

dunstonh wrote: »

It wouldnt have been a free option. It would have cost more. Probably a lot more.

Yes I now know this

ACG

They wouldnt offer you the option when taking over the policy, if they had to offer people the different options that were available and try to bolt them on to plans they have bought, there would be a few problems - IT, financial and human resource i would imagine.

Its your responsibility to review your policies periodically.

I call all of my clients annually to see if there have been any changes and then every other year i try to go and see them again, to update my paperwork and check for myself if they need reviewing - the amount of people that try to put me off until the next year and the next is pretty high.