Assurance policy errors

Hi,

I would appreciate some advice.

An asssurance policy was incorrectly completed by my adviser when transferring information from a previous policy - incorrect birth date indicated. The forms were signed and the agent indicated he would transfer the information. The adviser received the standard provider fee.

To correct this a new policy with a different provider was proposed to me and opened (with a higher monthly fee) and the original policy cancelled after multi-year payments made. Again a provider fee was paid to the adviser.

Was my policy negated due to this error?

Is this the best way to deal with this or is there an alternative?

Am I entitled to recover the multi-year monthly payments made from the incorrect policy provider?

Many thanks for your advice.

Use of the Data Protection Acts would force the companies to correct the mistake, without costing you a cent, assuming the incorrect date did not effect the cost/cover of the policy etc.

Generally speaking, if a claim on a life assurance policy is made and during a claim it transpires that the date of birth was wrong, the correct premium will be calculated and if you've been paying too little, any shortfall would be deducted from the claim. But cover is not invalidated by a genuine error on the date of birth.

My opinion would be that you were on cover on the original policy and therefore not entitled to a refund, although I'm not sure why your adviser didn't simply notify the life assurance company when the error came to light, rather than starting a new policy.

Thank you both. Towger: As the date would have reduced age it would have meant premiums were lower than they should have been. LDFerguson: I offered to make the difference in premium good (~€3K over several years) when the broker discovered the issue but was informed that it would be better to open a new policy and cancel the original one. As it turns out the original policy was not cancelled nor was the DD, so I now have two policies with two DD's. My gut feeling is that the broker fee involved (guess around €3K immediately and an annual small retention fee of some ~€50) in opening a new policy guided the advice provided though it does save me the €3K to make up the premium shortfall. Should I leave very well alone, cancel the original policy and run with the new?