Help please for my mum

Krakkkers

Just found out my mum and dad have been paying £121 a month on life insurance and have now paid around £20k in on a policy that will pay out £12k on the death of the first one of them.
My dad is now in a care home and my mum is on her own and struggling to find the money each month.
The company is legal and General and they won't talk anyone but my parents about the policy. They are 92 and 93 years old.
Is it allowed to over pay by this much, what are the options?

Robin9

Get a letter of authority from your parents authorising you to act on their behalf. While you at letter to their doctor - my MIL's doctor refused to talk to my wife without one.

Hoenir

What type of policy is it?  L&G won't provide advice. Decisions need to be made by the policyholders. Which in all honesty seems late in the day. As the cover has been provided. 

p00hsticks

That's generally the way life insurance works - those who live for a long time are effectively subsidising those who die shortly after taking out the policy.  (In the same way,. those who don't make claims on house or motor insurance are effectively paying for those who do...)

I suspect the only options will be to either carry on paying and claim when the first dies or to let the policy lapse and save on the monthly payments but forfeit the right to any payment on death. 

Do you have Power of Attorney for mum or dad ? If so and you share it with Legal & General then they should talk to you - or you can get mum or dad to phone them up while you are their ,give their permission to talk to you about it and hand over the phone to you.  

 

Krakkkers

Well I guess they did when they took it out but now they are £20k in.

p00hsticks

Robin9 said:

Get a letter of authority from your parents authorising you to act on their behalf. While you at letter to their doctor - my MIL's doctor refused to talk to my wife without one.

Rather than individual letters to all and sundry, just do it properly and get Lasting Powers of Attorney in place ......

DullGreyGuy

Krakkkers said:

Just found out my mum and dad have been paying £121 a month on life insurance and have now paid around £20k in on a policy that will pay out £12k on the death of the first one of them.
My dad is now in a care home and my mum is on her own and struggling to find the money each month.
The company is legal and General and they won't talk anyone but my parents about the policy. They are 92 and 93 years old.
Is it allowed to over pay by this much, what are the options?

In business we talk a lot about the "sunk cost fallacy", where things continue to be paid for because too much has already been spent to stop now. This is almost the inverse, where people think they've spent enough already so stop but then sadly one of the insureds passes shortly after and of cause they get nothing because the policy has been cancelled. 

What the options are will depend on exactly what the product is, as has been said policies bought directly from the insurer will be a non-advised basis and so all they can do is tell you what the options are and you have to make up your own mind. With the most basic policies your options will be cancel or continue paying, it presumably has reviewable premiums so every 5-10 years (specified in the policy) they will write to say you can keep the same sum insured and increase the premiums or keep the same premiums and reduce the sum insured. You'll naturally need to get consent for them to talk to you before you can do anything 

Keep_pedalling

Like any life policy some will get more out than they put in, but those lucky enough to live longer will pay in more than the policy pays out. Although these sort of policies may not be good value the insurance company have done nothing wrong so there only a couple of options available. The first is to continue paying until the first of them dies, the second is to cancel the policy which will result in no payout.

It sounds like your parents have not put lasting powers of attorney in place and and that should top of their priority list. if your father does not have the capacity to do so then it might be worth obtaining deputyship for him but that is a far more expensive option.

Krakkkers

We are in the process of doing the power of attorney thing now and i have just heard that my sister is ringing LG with my mum sat next to her so hopefully we can get some options.
My dad is receiving end of life care although seems to be ok right now.

DullGreyGuy

Keep_pedalling said:

Although these sort of policies may not be good value the insurance company have done nothing wrong so there only a couple of options available. 

Other than the FCA is now investigating the value of products hence GAP insurance was being suspended for sales given the tiny percentage of premiums being paid out in claims. Not at an individual policyholder level but a wider product level

XRS200

Krakkkers said:

We are in the process of doing the power of attorney thing now and i have just heard that my sister is ringing LG with my mum sat next to her so hopefully we can get some options.
My dad is receiving end of life care although seems to be ok right now.

Sorry to say, but the best option might be to keep the policy going