pension question and personal insuance

1chippy

i have two questions hopefully someone can help me with.
The first being:
i took out a life insurance policy eight years ago. Paying just over forty euro per week, i was told that i was covered for just about any eventuality.
i found out recently when i had an accident (cut off my thumb) that i wasnt covered for 1 amputation. 2. broken bones policy 3.hospital cash 4. time off work for first four weeks.
maybe i was a foll for not reading the small print but i was in my early twenties, self employed and told it was what i "was supposed to do".
the broken bones and amputtation iwas told was not covered because it was below the wrist. the hospital cash because i was released from hosp two hours early. time off work wasnt covered for first four weeks. i have now put in an application to claim for the rest of the time off work they told me i have to give them tax returns for last year and that i will get 50% of my earnings last year. when i took out the policy we agreed that my time off work was to be set at 805 per week, last year i made a loss.
can anyone help or advise me on this matter. By the way i have never made an insurance claim on my policy.

The second question being:
i took out a pension scheme with the same company and currently my pension is worth aproximately 20% of the money invested. Should i just stick it out with my current payments or stop and aim at building or buying a second property hoping to use that as my nest egg.

i am pretty confused with these policies, and i cant seem to get any straight answers from anyone who isnt biased or just regurgitating someone elses sales speil.
thanks for the help if there is any.

Pablo Sanchez

Unfortunatly policies do have terms and conditions relating to severity of the specified illness/injury / lenghth of stay in hospita/ period of time you are out of work before income benefits kick in etc. While you have clearly (just) fallen short of the terms in this case, and must be very frustrated, the exact information regarding what they will consider a claim will be listed in your policy documents.

Re the pension, 80% is a pretty serious reduction in value, are you invested in a Irish Commercial property fund? If so you might look at redirecting future contributions into a different fund. Just remember that a pension is a long term investment and while you have seen massive capital reduction over the last few years, there could be decades before your retirement date and therefore plenty of time for the units you hold to recover.