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Life insurance review question. Down 35K

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  • 09-01-2008 8:14pm
    #1
    Neamhshuntasach
    Registered Users Posts: 2,168 ✭✭✭


    The following happened to my mother and i just want to see does she have a leg to stand on.

    She had a life insurance policy for 70 grand. And apparently it was up for review last April. I say apparently because she was never once informed. The policy was taken out through a brokerage agency. She called up today about a separate issue and was told that her policy is now only 35 grand. When she told them that it was a mistake they said that it is not and it is at that value now because she failed to contact them when it was up for review. She said that she never received anything about it being up for review but was told that because she got it through a broker she should have contacted him as he would have been informed instead. So she got off the phone with the insurance company and called the broker. He never received anything either.

    So my mother is down 35 grand on her policy and has paid for a higher policy for a number of years to which is a loss now due to the fact that there is obviously a communication problem with the insurance company. Does anybody have any knowledge on this? Should the customer just know that it is up for review or is the insurance company supposed to inform or send a reminder.

    Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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    #2
    broker2008
    Registered Users Posts: 750 ✭✭✭broker2008


    She might have had a unit linked whole of life policy which has reviews every 10 years and some companies yearly after age 70. Basically the company reviews the premium that is been paid for the given level of life cover. As she gets older the cost of cover increases and based on these figures which seem a little extreme, the premium is not enough to pay for the life cover offered and money is been taken from the "investment fund" to pay for the premiums. You need to do something quick or the rest of the other 35k will be gone. Go talk to the broker. If it can be proved that no review letter was issued by life company to either your mother or the broker, there may be some negotiations to be carried out. Make sure that they had the right address for her. Also if her money was invested in say Irish Equities she could easily be down 20% in the past year.


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    #3
    dotsman
    Registered Users Posts: 3,636 ✭✭✭dotsman


    You might want to talk to Joe. He can be very good with this sort of thing. However, you will need to follow the insurance company's complaints procedure first before he will take a look at it (ie, he deals with unresolved complaints)

    Financial Ombudsman

    Take a look at yesterdays publication on that website to give you an idea of what he can do. (He lists off a bunch of examples that he has had to deal with over the past few months).


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