Residence in US

pastjamu

My niece has a PruProtect Whole of Life Insurance plan [Essentials??] taken out some 3 years ago. She has since met a US citizen and is now contemplating moving to New Jersey where they will be married.
Can she retain the life insurance plan even though she may become resident in the US? She is keeping a UK address (through parents) and UK bank account so monthly premiums are not an issue
Any help or advice would be useful especially any links to any online docs!

Annisele

She should check the terms and conditions of the policy, or just ring Pru up and ask them.

When I worked for a life office (which was a long time ago, and things may have changed), our T&Cs did say that the policies only covered people resident in the UK. What we really meant by that was "we want to be able to see reliable medical records" and "we want to be able to rely on the death certificate". When people died after moving to the US/France/Japan ten years ago, we usually did pay out.

There was one memorable case where we didn't pay out. We said it was because the policyholder had moved outside the UK, but the real issue was that we didn't think the policyholder was actually dead. (Before anybody is shocked and horrified, we had very good reasons to believe he was still alive).

Separately, she should check whether the policy is still useful to her. Whole of life has its place, but I think that most people are usually better off with term assurance - not many people have a need for life cover for their whole lives. She's also had a fairly significant change in her circumstances, so her protection needs might have changed quite a bit too. She might want to consider talking to an adviser, either here or in the US.