Life insurance terms

Roxy1964

I have just found out that the life insurance I took out 25yfs ago has finished. I was not told that it was term this is something I was not told at the time, it was taken out through Scottish Widows. I am shocked as I was lead to believe I would pay this for life and have something to leave my sons. I cannot move the money to something else is there anything I can do? I am getting nowhere with insurance company any advice please would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Deleted User]

You can take out a new policy, although it will inevitably be more expensive now, if you were to insure for the same sum.

Old_Lifer

When  you took-out the policy  you would have signed a proposal  form    stateing  the type of  life policy you wanted  and saying that you wished to take-out a policy  for a term of 25 years.    The documentation you were sent at the time  would have confirmed this.      If you take a look at your policy, the schedule will say something like this:

              Sum Assured      £___________  (amount)     payable on death before _____________(date of  expiry of the policy)

Term  assurance  is the cheapest form of life cover.    There is no investment element,  therefore there was no surrender value and no pot of money.    All of the premium you paid each month  was used to purchase life cover each month.     If you had stopped paying, the policy would have  terminated,    as it did at the end of the term.

Sadly,   I cannot see any point in complaining about this 

dunstonh

I was not told that it was term this is something I was not told at the time,

1 - The product would be called a term assurance.  The quote issued at the time would have stated the term

2 - The cancellation rights issued would have reconfirmed the premium, the sum assured and the term.

3 - the policy schedule would have stated the premium, the sum assured and the term

It is probably more likely that you forgot or though the term was sufficient for the need.

A whole of life assurance plan from 1995 would have been investment linked and obsolete by today's standards.   It would have cost an awful lot more than the term assurance.

I am shocked as I was lead to believe I would pay this for life and have something to leave my sons. 

Are your sons financially worse off in the event of your death?  i.e. do they need the life assurance policy now?

Roxy1964

Thank you everyone for your replies, they have been very helpful, I understood this was for life not for term I will wait and see what Scottish Widows say.

Sandtree

Have you looked for your original paperwork to see what it says?

I'd struggle to remember what I had for dinner on Friday let alone the conversation on life insurance 25 years ago... unfortunately our memory can deceive us. As others have said, there is a massive difference in premiums between a policy that pays out IF you die before the age of XX (eg 65) and one that pays out no matter when you die.

davidmcn

Even if it wasn't what you thought you were getting, you've had what you paid for i.e. insurance which would have paid out if you had died during the 25 years. I'm not sure what any sort of complaint after 25 years is going to achieve.