Old Insurance Policies-Legal and General

EllenMeadows

My uncle died recently and I am executor of his will. He had two life assurance policies with legal and general, which ended in 1980s. I have written to them with all of the evidence and had a reply saying they are old policies and they can find no trace of them and given when they ended they can be no further help to me.

One policy is a decreasing return without profits which sounds like it might not have been worth mch.
The other was with profits and says it pays out at the end of the policy or on the death of the named person.

Both policies and paperwork showing he paid them until the end of the policy and they were in his file of financial affairs still to be settled. He was meticulous about his financial affairs. I have his files of bank statements going back to the 70s and they do not show any pay in cheques from Legal and General. I would have thought L and G would have been able to be more specificc with me than just saying they can't help.

Should I pursue this?

csgohan4

if they ended in 1980, I assume the policy has ended as your uncle didn't need them anymore? and therefore no claim can be made from them???

dunstonh

I have written to them with all of the evidence and had a reply saying they are old policies and they can find no trace of them and given when they ended they can be no further help to me.

That is to be expected. Data protection act requires destruction of data when it is no longer required. The regulator recommends 6 years. Providers tend to stagger destruction of data.

As these policies ended over 30 years ago, the data would likely be long gone.

One policy is a decreasing return without profits which sounds like it might not have been worth mch.

It is not worth anything.
1 - it is without profits
2 - it ended. So, no longer exists.

The other was with profits and says it pays out at the end of the policy or on the death of the named person.

And as it ended, it ceases to have any value having paid out.

Should I pursue this?

Pursue what? Both policies ended and no longer exist. There is nothing to pursue.

EllenMeadows

Thanks for the replies. I must just not understand this. When my mum died there were old life policies that had been taken out years before- she was no longer paying the premium on them- but they were paid out by the company. I don't understand why these policies are different. My Uncle clearly thought they had a value as he put them in his unsettled financial affairs folder to be dealt with on his death, along with his building society books, funeral plan, grave deeds, share certifcates.

dunstonh

When my mum died there were old life policies that had been taken out years before- she was no longer paying the premium on them- but they were paid out by the company

The UK has around 13 different types of life assurance.

There are types which are known as whole of life. With these, you pay premiums either for the whole of your life or for a defined period or until you reach a certain age. If you do that, the insurer will pay out whenever you die. This type of insurance is very niche nowadays. Some insurers, mainly the old home service ones, used to collect premiums weekly or monthly by visiting your house. This became inefficient and expensive and dangerous over time and people had to move to standing order or direct debit. With the small premium cases, a number of the insurers allowed the premium to stop being paid but have the benefits retained as this was cheaper for them.

The two types of plan you mention were not whole of life. They had a defined period. One appears to be a decreasing term assurance and the other appears to be an endowment. With those, you paid for the defined term and at the end of the term they cease. The first one was without profits. So, its just like any term assurance. The second one would pay out on maturity or death, whichever comes first.

A whole of life assurance plan does not have an end date. The policy document would not mention any date it ends.

My Uncle clearly thought they had a value as he put them in his unsettled financial affairs folder to be dealt with on his death

He may have put them in that folder when he took them out and just left them there and forgot to remove them when they finished. Which reminds me that I have an old life policy document in my folder which I can get rid of now.

EllenMeadows

Thank you. I understand now.