Life Life Assurance - Payments lapsed

Ok, I think I know the answer to this question already but just wondering if I have any comeback at all. About six months before my father died, due to strokes etc. he neglected to keep up payments on his life assurance policy. We only found this out after he died. Up until then he always made sure they were paid and had paid into it for over 30 years. He died in 2003 so do I have any comeback with the life assurance company or will it be "tough luck"? I think my mother queried it at some point but she has since died so I'm not entirely sure. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

There is a few different ways to look at it depending on the circumstances;

1) The policy may have had whats called terminal illness benefit on it (some life policies do). Basically this would pay out in advance of death if your father was diagnosed as only having a period of time left to live. If this was the case and can be proven by medical records, it may be possible to put in a legitimate claim as they may have paid out on it initially if a claim had been made before he stopped paying.

2) You could appeal to the companies claims manager based on your fathers inability to look after himself to sort out the payment problem (or if he was impaired medically in some way from instructing another to sort it on his behalf) if your father didnt specifically cancel the policy (ie it just was cancelled due to non payment). They would most likely not pay the full claim but may pay a partial payment based on the longevity of the time he was a policy holder and the amount of premium he paid. Theres no guarantee that they would make a payment but a case could be made to them.

3) Depending on the type of policy there may have also being some value to the policy that was made "paid up" on policy cessation. Some whole of life plans carry values and this could be claimed if there was any attached value. Note a normal term policy would not hold a value so it really depends on the type of policy he had and whether there was a surplus on it after life costs were deducted.

I hope this helps, you may not get any joy but it is definately worth investigating.




www.CheaperLifeAssurance.ie

Thanks so much, SteveC. I'll contact them and see what happens.