Life insurance claim from 1929

WhiteWolf2016

Not sure whether anyone on here is qualified to make an informed guess on this but I'm confused by a recent life insurance policy payout which appears suspect.

Following the unexpected passing of my mother recently I am currently acting as Executor to her estate.

In her paperwork I found two life insurance policies. One dated 1939 which showed a death benefit of around £28 which to my surprise paid out over £1,400

The other dated 1929 was an old fashioned penny (1d) policy on the back of which is a table advising that the death benefit 10 years after initiating the policy would be £15 & 6 shillings. Being 10 years older than the other policy but only half the value I could not calculate the potential payout.

I have now received a cheque but without influencing any informed responses on here would like your comments on what you would consider a reasonable payout before posting the actual cheque value. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Quentin

£30?? .

forgotmyname

£15.72 ?

sghughes42

Presumably the payout will be adjusted based on inflation over the period in question? Therefore you'd need to look up the data for the relevant period. I'd suspect the depression will have an impact but not sure which way!

This link may help:
http://inflation.stephenmorley.org/

For £28 in 1939 it comes out with £1696 yet for £15.5 in 1929 it only comes out with £878. Of course, without knowing the basis on which the insurance company calculate the payout it's hard to tell - is this the same company or a different one? Even that may affect how things are calculated.

WhiteWolf2016

Many thanks for taking the time to read and reply to the thread guys which is much appreciated.

As per my own expectations of the payout and your replies there is quite a difference £15.72 - £800+.

So to answer your queries and give further input, the first policy which paid out £1,400+ merely quoted the fixed death benefit of c£28 which was with Prudential. The second policy was with a different company (Royal London) whereby the document gave an illustration of payout. £7 after one year etc up to £15/6 after 10 years with the policy dated 87 years ago.

Based on the first I would have assumed the value to increase with inflation, based on the second I assumed the scale may continue to rise after each year.

The actual cheque received was for £32.36 with known payments made for at least 60 years.

Quentin

WhiteWolf2016 wrote: »

The actual cheque received was for £32.36 ......

See #2

Please donate my prize to a charity of your choice!

WhiteWolf2016

So does the collective feel that£32 could be right? Does anyone know how I can check that the payout is correct?

Quentin

Ask them to explain how it has been calculated and take it from their reply.


(Though it is in the ball park for penny policies - see #2!)

sheramber

When he was 18 y husband took out such a policy on his mother and father.

The sum assured was a set amount but payments continued until his parents died.

We did claim on his mother's policy when she died but after another few years we realised that as his father seemed likely to live for s good few more years we would have paid in more than we could get back so we cashed the policy in.

Ii is the same a the over 50's policy which you pay until you died but there is a limit on the payout.

The frost policy sounds like a with profits policy which will have a bonus added on each year.