best way to cash in endowments

mystic_bertie

hi y first post so go easy on me, i appologise if this has been covered before but....

i have just seperated with my wife and my house is sold and now we are looking into cashing in our 2 endowments, 1 is with prudential (initially with scot amicable) and has been running for 8 year paying £62 per month, the other axa eq & law endowment has been running for 13 year and paying £56 per month. Between the 2 of them our surrender value is £13,500 for both, was wondering if there is a better way of cashing them in or are we best just to surrender these to the insurance company's.

Reaper

There are 2 more alternatives to consider.

OPTION 1: Sell the endowment instead of surrendering it. Unfortunately this is no longer as easy as it used to be. I heard recently that unless your endowment is with one of two companies you will not beat the surrender price. Of course it would be useful if I could remember what the two are, but I can't.

To explore this option contact some of the firms that organise it. Here is a list. It's 2 years old so some might be around any more. You might be able to find a more up to date list if you search Google.

OPTION 2: Keep the policies going as a savings policy (with a bit of life assurance too). Most of the charges tend to be in the early years which you have got past, and there may be surrender penalties. If you keep them until the normal end date you get all the proceeds if the mortgage companies no longer have an interest. On the other hand the performance of many of the policies has not exactly been sparkling to date.

Also bear in mind that a policy that has not been running for at least 10 years might land you with a tax bill. I'm not certain of the rules but best to check on the 8 year one before you surrender it.

I can't say which is the best option for you though.

mystic_bertie

hi reaper many thanks for the reply, i would like to keep the policy's going as a way of saving but i will be short on cash month to month as i am living on my own nw and will have child maintanance to pay etc so i dont think i could afford to keep the payments up, it would be nice though as then i could pay off a whack of my mortgage when they mature.
Ill check out that list and see how i get on, many thanks for taking the time to reply.

regards

Furniture_man

I've tried to sell my endowment, which has been running for 8 years, but all the companies I've tried have rejected my endowment.

There was an article in one of Wednesday's papers on this subject, and it wound up by stating 'the bottom has fallen out of this market'.

Eventually, in the majority of cases, you have to settle for the cash in value your endowment company has offered.

Septimus_Goatboat

My experience recently is that the market makers would not offer anymore than he surrender value offered by the endowment providers on my policies.

dunstonh

My experience recently is that the market makers would not offer anymore than he surrender value offered by the endowment providers on my policies.  :(

It depends on the company.

If you have a Pearl or Royal Sun Alliance endowment, for example, there is going to be little or no interest on those endowments as they are awful.

A standard life or prudential endowment would be more desirable.

Septimus_Goatboat

Of course it depends on the companies, but none of the companies you refer to were involved.