critical illness policy

my critical illness,whole of lifw policy premium has been more than doubled from 50 eur to 115 eur per month.I am 56 years of age.
have i any recourse to an independent arbitrator on this?
Effectively the company can price me out of this policy when next reviewd in 5 years by treblng or quadrupling the premium after taking my money since 1993.

Contact this office immediately , outlining your situation . I recently had a claim successfully settled , with the intervention of this Ombudsman

Financial Services
Ombudsman
3rd Floor, Lincoln House,
Lincoln Place,
Dublin 2
Lo Call: 1890 88 20 90
Tel: +353 1 6620899
Fax: +353 1 6620890

[broken link removed]

You cannot bring a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman until you have gone through the full extent of the complaints procedure of the life assurance company, so if you're thinking of approaching the Ombudsman, complain in writing to the life assurance company first.

Was the review explained to you at point of sale 10 years ago? Did the company carry out the review on time, i.e. at exactly 10 years after you started the policy?

allthedoyles - was your complaint about a similar type of policy and its review?

LDFerguson said:

allthedoyles - was your complaint about a similar type of policy and its review?

Click to expand...

A similar type policy , but the dispute was cash value after cancellation 14 years into policy

Thanks. This highlights a long-held view of mine - these "reviewable whole-life" policies should be withdrawn from sale altogether. They're not truly whole-life because the reviews will hike up the premium as the policyholder gets older. They're not a savings vehicle either as the returns are invariably poor.

I'd be happy to see them disappear.

Liam, I agree 100% with you but we know the details of reviews and how / when they are carried out are written into the policy document that everyone receives when they take out a policy.

Permit me to play devil's advocate but I sometimes find it hard to understand how people become so animated when the insurance company carries out what they told them they would. Surely the cooling off period is there to drill home the fact that people have a responsibility to read and understand the policy document. If they don't then they should avail of the time afforded to them during the cooling off period to seek clarification from the seller.

I think the problem with these policies, Sumatra, is that the explaination from the company/bank/agent at point of sale is hazey to put it mildly. I've had a lot of people contact us over the last number of years, who were shocked that the premium wasn't guaranteed for life or that the savings element was 0. I think clients deserve a bit better than caveat emptor.

Jimbobp, fair point. One could ask, do the sellers know what they are selling?

Unfortunately I think in a lot of cases (especially with the banks) that the seller knows exactly what they are selling - a bit of a cash cow. As premiums are reviewed/increased, commissions increase. I believe there is some merit in every policy on the market, but these contracts should be banned from being advertised/sold as whole of life or savings linked. IMO they are neither.


www.powerinsurances.ie

Whole Of Life policies have been sold since the 80's with force in the early 90's and only in the late 90's did some sellers switch to selling lower commission guaranteed products.

It's not too much to ask that someone who is paid heaps in commission explains it so you can understand. Its not too much to ask that the person who sold the product and made a packet on the initial commission is there 5, 10, 15 years later to help the client?

Was it a bad decision for the seller to sell the policy or a bad decision for the buyer to buy it? This 56 year old initially thought he made a good low risk purchase but is now in negative emotion with the increase in premiums. The seller is probably no where to be found or is there earning his /her renewal commission and doesn't care less about Mr or Mrs 56 year old. At the time I'd even bet the seller never even knew what the inplications of the small print governing the review process meant but shouldn't the purchaser have read it for him / herself? How many things in life are we prepared to pay €50 a month for and not know exactly what we are getting for our money?.

As for today, there are still plenty of flavour of the month cash cows around today and I don't hear many take the moral high ground because they are not called whole of life or endowment. Sales are being driven by the apparent low risk of the purchase and emotion that helps people not see the wood for the trees.

Personally the only whole of life policies that I will sell are an Eagle Star or Hibernian guaranteed whole of life policy unless the customer is adamant they want a reviewable policy and even then I advise against it unless they have a very specific reason for it (ie they dont intend to keep it for whole of life).

I agree with Liam 100%, I dont think these reviewable products should even be on the market anymore as they are totally misleading in what they offer and give insurance companies a blank cheque to charge whatever they want in the future.

I was told that the premia would rise with inflation.I never would have signed up for the policy if i knew that the insurer could charge what they like.No doubt the insurer will say they are acting appropriately to their"policies" but there is a fundamental dishonesty here and deliberate and wilful omission of material facts.Benny Fitt.