Life Insurance Setup Incorrectly

scottishgirl87

We have just sold our flat and haven't yet found a house to buy so are temporarily living with parents. When we bought the flat nearly 5 years ago, we took out a life insurance policy via London & Country with Aviva. As I'm now looking to cancel this policy, I have literally just noticed that instead of our flat address being on it, it's actually setup against my previous address (which happens to be my parents). Does this mean if we had actually needed to claim on the policy it would have been invalid?

Obviously it hasn't been needed, thankfully, but not too happy we've technically been paying for 5 years on something that wasn't correct.

[Deleted User]

Life insurance pays out on your life, rather your home, so no reason it wouldn't have paid out.

dunstonh

Does this mean if we had actually needed to claim on the policy it would have been invalid?

No. Your address has nothing to do with any underwriting criteria.

scottishgirl87

Sorry I haven't explained correctly, it was mortgage life insurance, decreasing term assurance. Does that still not matter regarding the address?

Aretnap

Don't cancel your existing policy until you're certain that (a) you'll be able to get a replacement policy and (b) the replacement policy will be better value for money than the old policy.

As you're 5 years older you might well find that a new policy is more expensive than the old one, especially if either of you has any new health problems that you didn't have 5 years ago. So it's quite plausible that your best option will be to keep the old one going, topping it up by getting a second policy if you need more cover (eg because you eventually end up with a bigger mortgage, or because you're planning to start a family)

Weighty1

scottishgirl87 wrote: »

Sorry I haven't explained correctly, it was mortgage life insurance, decreasing term assurance. Does that still not matter regarding the address?

Nope, it makes absolutely no difference. The plan would still have paid out. You don't even need to have a mortgage for there to be a valid claim on these sorts of plans.

dunstonh

scottishgirl87 wrote: »

Sorry I haven't explained correctly, it was mortgage life insurance, decreasing term assurance. Does that still not matter regarding the address?

It makes no difference.

You would not believe the number of life assurance plans that do not hold the current address. Quite a lot of people do tend to forget to do their change of address on them. Nothing to worry as the address is not an underwriting decision on life assurance.