money back term assured - life assured

lizpixie

My husband and I took out the above life insurances on a fixed 15 year term, am sure when he took them out just over 14 years ago that he was led to believe that we would get back a minimum of our premiums at the end of the 15 years,
The 15 years is up next February and I have just received a letter but it says :
" money-back benefit, designed to pay a lump sum if the life assured survives until the policy end date and the policy remains in force for the whole term, the benefit will be equal to Half the premiums paid on the policy"
Am pretty sure that this is not what was originally agreed when we took the policies out but cannot find the original paperwork, and am 100% sure my husband would not have taken them out knowing that we would only get back half what we paid in.
is there anything I can do about this as I feel we have been taken for a ride

warwicktiger

Name the company, someone else might have the same contract

lizpixie

I cant remember the company it was taken out with but they were taken over by Phoenix Life some years ago

antrobus

lizpixie wrote: »

I cant remember the company it was taken out with but they were taken over by Phoenix Life some years ago

Any of these names ring a bell?
http://www.phoenixlife.co.uk/about-phoenix-life/history.aspx

teddysmum

Except for interest gained, surely a policy paying back all premiums would not benefit the insurer, who is in the business of making money ? With a claim they lose and without one, all they would get is the interest on the payments, so very little gain, if any.

Phil_H_MLIA(dip)_Cert_PFS

Term Assurance is generally exactly that and is designed to offer a specified level and type of protection for the term.
It is remarkably unusual for any company to offer a return in the event of non-claim although this is the basic premise for the old endowment plans or savings endowments aka maxim investment plans (although the balance was more savings and less assurance)

What broadly are you premiums and sum assured please?

kingstreet

In the mid-80s when I started in the business I was a broker consultant with Sun Alliance.

We had a contract called Mortgage Assurance Plus which was a level term assurance with a small guaranteed basic sum designed to grow with bonuses to produce a sum at expiry around the level of the premiums paid.

When the AIDS scare hit and life offices withdrew pretty much every contract with a conversion/increase option, it went by the board along with some lovely protection plans we inherited when taking over Phoenix Assurance (the real one) in 1985.

Heard of nothing like it since, other than flexible unit-linked whole life-type contracts which largely disappeared from sale in the late 90s/early 00s.

antrobus

kingstreet wrote: »

...Heard of nothing like it since, other than flexible unit-linked whole life-type contracts which largely disappeared from sale in the late 90s/early 00s.

Here's an article about ' money back life insurance'. It's apparently popular in Australia and South Africa, and some bloke from Axa is thinking about doing the same in the UK.

http://citywire.co.uk/money/the-life-insurance-that-offers-cash-even-if-you-dont-claim/a816350

If you read the comments to the piece, there's one that says that says 'this is nothing new', and refers to a 'major life company' offering DTA plus endowment policies in the past.