Life insurance assured sum

Lainey_loves_cake

Hi I am executer of my late uncles will. He never had much but always paid his life insurance as this was his funeral money. He died age 93 and had paid in for 25 years.  He paid into a secure life plan with BOS investment club and when I received the information on his pay out it was less than a third of what he paid in over the years.  Anyone able to shed some light on this type of account as the sum won’t even cover a funeral. Thanks

Brie

This seems to have been a common thing sold to older individuals in the 1980s & 90s.  25 years back he would have likely been just retired and it probably was seen as a good thing working on the assumption that he might last 15 years or so if he was lucky.  That he live 25 years is great but the policies seem to have had a cap on the payout.  

The unfairness of this sort of thing has, I believe, been investigated and later policies have been revamped to be fairer.  If it makes you feel any better my FiL paid £4 a month into a policy for 30 years (so £1440) which paid out £250 when he died.  

dunstonh

He paid into a secure life plan with BOS investment club and when I received the information on his pay out it was less than a third of what he paid in over the years.

With proper underwritten life insurance you usually find the sum assured is greater than the amount paid in.

With over 50s style plans, these offer much lower sum insureds.  They are basically an option of last resort for people who cannot get normal life assurance.   However, the marketing of them is pretty poor and many people take them out just because they are over 50 and don't realise that they could be very poor value.

He had a much longer life than he expected.