SUN LIFE OVER 50 PLAN. A WORD OF WARNING

jifmoose

Yes life insurers have to take a cold, actuarial perspective on the monetary value of life. That's the business and their prerogative.

Being on the other side of the bargain gives us the privilege of looking at it from the opposite perspective: at £22 per month, that's £264 per year. For a payout of £2040 you are looking at a break even point of 7 years and 8 months where you (or your heirs) still "make money". Instead of thinking of it as £2040 down the drain, how about looking at the other side of the ledger and considering the free gift of 7+ more years of life?

Is that 7 years worth £2040 as Sunlife determine? Well I'll tell you one thing, if a genie offered the certainty to take 2K off me in exchange for lengthening my life by 7 years it is not a deal I'd hesitate over. Your mileage may vary depending on your health etc.

(in the Sunlife scenario, we can then consider whether it's worth continuing to pay after the 7 years as we keep on living. At that point you're £2K "down" … if you keep paying, you have a chance to "rescue" some of that. After 15 years you've payed out £4K and have the certainty of never recovering any of the original £2K.. etc).

I'm sorry for your loss and I hope your Dad had a healthy and enjoyable 20 years. But never mind 7 years/15 years etc in the calculations above - your Dad totally beat the life-expectancy curve (good for him!). We can but hope to spectacularly lose our bets with the life insurers in a similar way.