Halifax / St Andrew's Life policy - Scottish Widows cannot find it after Mum's death

seliwills

Hi all,

I am hoping someone here has been through something similar and can point me in the right direction.

My mum died on 16 September. In 2010 she took out a Halifax Level Life Cover Plan, issued by St Andrew's Life Assurance, with just over £27,000 of cover over a 27-year term. She paid the £25 monthly premium to Halifax by direct debit every month right up until she died, and I have the original policy documents and bank statements showing the payments.

St Andrew's Life was transferred into Scottish Widows at the end of 2015, but Scottish Widows say they have no record of the policy at all, even when searching by her address. Halifax escalated it internally and have also been unable to find anything. Their only offer so far is to refund the premiums, which is nowhere near the cover she was paying for.

I have raised formal complaints with Halifax and Scottish Widows and written to the Lloyds Banking Group executive team. I know I can go to the Financial Ombudsman if needed.

Has anyone else had a St Andrew's Life or Halifax Reassurance policy go missing after the transfer to Scottish Widows? If so, how did you get it found or resolved? Is there a particular team or department at Scottish Widows that deals with legacy St Andrew's policies?

Any advice would be really appreciated, as we are also arranging her funeral at the moment.

Thanks,
Selina

I have also posted about it on X, @SelinaWill26860, if anyone is able to share it please - https://x.com/SelinaWill26860/status/2103042263366480314

retiredbanker1

Lets be clear - you can clearly see a direct debit (with a reference number which is normally the policy number) and the payments were going out of her account until her demise?

Let the formal complaint take its course - I can't see the ombudsman not telling Scottish Widows to pay up as per the policy documents if it goes that far.

The back office at Halifax can see the sort code and account number that the monies will have gone into.

How can they offer to reimburse premiums if they can't find anything?

seliwills

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82147212#Comment_82147212

Yes I have the policy number, her bank statements, her personal details, her NI number.

Halifax can "see" the policy reference at their end, but they are unable to see where the payments are going internally, and as far as their system is concerned, the policy is transferred to Scottish Widows - Scottish Widows are saying they have no such policy.

I really struggle to understand how their internal processes/systems cannot link the two - especially when it was a DD, this was not a standing order where my mum was sending money into a black hole.

I have been on so many phone calls over the last few days with both companies, I am exhausted. I have sent emails and complaint forms, no one comes back to me.

retiredbanker1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82147222#Comment_82147222

In that case wait for the complaint response and if you are not happy then report it to the ombudsman.

Just one thing - is there any chance that the policy had expired or been cancelled or cashed in (if that was available) prior to her death?

Then the error would be simply a refund of premiums (as offered?) plus an amount to cover inconvenience. Does the reference on the direct debit correspond to the policy number that you have?

seliwills

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82147226#Comment_82147226

The policy had not expired, lapsed or been cancelled. It was a 27-year Level Life Cover Plan taken out in 2010 and the payments were up to date, the last one having been taken on the 6th of September. It had 10 years left to run.

This was a live policy at the date of death, and a refund of premiums is not the right outcome. Life cover is not a savings account and it completely undermines the purpose of insurance; the whole point is that the sum assured to my mum in the event of her death is honoured. If the insurers have lost their own records, that is their failing, and it should not reduce what she secured with them in good faith. If they are allowed to simply pay back premiums, they could surely use this as a "get out of jail free card" each time they decide they do not wish to pay out?

I will of course go to the Ombudsman if the complaint responses are not acceptable, but I just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience.

dunstonh

I would expect Scottish Widows to find this difficult to defend if the documents are as you describe.

A policy document is ordinarily issued only after the insurer has accepted the application and put the cover in force. It is therefore strong evidence that St Andrew’s Life Assurance accepted the risk, set up the policy and issued cover on the stated terms.

If the monthly premium shown in the policy document matches the direct-debit payments, and those payments continued until your mother’s death, that is further strong evidence that the policy remained in force. On those facts, a failure to locate the policy on Scottish Widows’ current system would not, by itself, be a reason to treat the policy as void or to limit the outcome to a refund of premiums.

Scottish Widows would need to explain, with evidence, why it says no valid claim is payable—for example, by producing a record of cancellation, lapse, surrender, a previous claim, or some other event that brought the cover to an end. Otherwise, the policy schedule and payment history would appear to support a claim for the stated death benefit.

I would continue with the formal complaints already raised and insist on a full search of the legacy St Andrew’s/Halifax records, using the policy number and direct-debit reference as well as the name and address. A complaint handler may have access to escalation, archive-search and reconciliation routes that a normal servicing team does not.

If the matter is not resolved, it would be reasonable to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service after a final response, or once eight weeks have passed from the complaint. The Ombudsman would be likely to consider the original policy documentation and the evidence of premiums being accepted right up to death carefully.

Halifax can "see" the policy reference at their end, but they are unable to see where the payments are going internally, and as far as their system is concerned, the policy is transferred to Scottish Widows - Scottish Widows are saying they have no such policy.

St Andrew’s Life Assurance business was transferred in 2015 to Clerical Medical Investment Group Limited, rather than directly into the historic Scottish Widows company. Clerical Medical Investment Group Limited then changed its legal name to Scottish Widows Limited.

That distinction may be practically important because the legal transfer and the later operational integration of policy-administration records are separate matters. Scottish Widows has historically operated more than one legacy administration environment, so an adviser or call-centre team dealing with one book of business may not necessarily have access to another. A “no record found” response can therefore mean that the enquiry has reached the wrong servicing area or that a search has been performed only on one system; it should not be treated as conclusive evidence that the policy never existed.

In this case, the original policy document, the Halifax/St Andrew’s plan name, the policy number and the direct-debit reference should be used to request a search of the relevant legacy St Andrew’s / Halifax life-assurance records, rather than a standard Scottish Widows policy search. The complaint should be passed to the team with access to the former St Andrew’s book, or to a central legacy-records/reconciliation function.

My understanding is that the principal current exception is the Halifax/Bank of Scotland Over 50 Guaranteed Life Plan, which Scottish Widows identifies separately as having been provided by St Andrew’s Life Assurance and routes to its own servicing line. Other St Andrew’s-origin life business should ordinarily sit within the broader Scottish Widows legacy life-assurance operation, albeit potentially on a different policy-administration system from other Scottish Widows plans.

seliwills

Update - yesterday evening I received a claim form by email, it came from a St. Andrews email address, the claim form itself references "Health Claims Department for St. Andrews Insurance PLC".

The email had the Halifax logo, and in the small text at the bottom it referenced Scottish Widows, still not sure who is actually managing the process of locating my mums policy - but at least now I have a name a reference ID.

seliwills

I have just received confirmation that the insurance policy will be paid within the next 5 days - I hope they learn from this, I really do hope that others do not need to go through the same level of stress