Life Life Insurance Question

Hi,

I was hoping someone could help me with the following query. My parents have been paying for life insurance for the last 30 years. They are now retired and are struggling to continue to make the payments. They don't want to stop the payments and let the policy lapse as they would like to leave us (their children) something when they pass on. Also there is significant value built up in the policy.
They've tried to reduce the benefit (and thus the monthly payments) but the insurance company is not willing to do this. They would be open to selling the policy (like one can do in the US) but don't think that's possible here (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Also, both my parents are insured. I had suggested that maybe they could ask the insurance company if they could take one person off the policy and hence reduce the payments that way. They have not asked but given that the insurance company was not willing to reduce the payment for a reduced benefit then I'm not too hopeful.
Can anyone suggest what options are open to my parents given that they want to reduce their payments yet not give up all of the value that has been built up in the policy?

Thanks,

If the purpose of the policy is to benefit you & your siblings why don't you take over the payments between you ?

hippy1975, I had thought of that but am loathed to suggest it. The idea of recieving a benefit won the death of my parents seems immoral. Just desn't sit well with me - would prefer them to let the policy lapse.

Unfortunately when it comes to life policies what you sign up for is what you get. If you want to make any changes to it you can't. You have to cancel the policy and take out a new one. It sounds like they have a whole of life policy if it has a value built up in it. Why don't they cancel the plan and invest the sum of money they get. They can then leave that to you children if they want.

*provided of course they don't need the life cover to pay for any liabilities on their death.

hippy1975 said:

If the purpose of the policy is to benefit you & your siblings why don't you take over the payments between you ?

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hippy1975, I had thought of that but am loathed to suggest it. The idea of recieving a benefit won the death of my parents seems immoral. Just desn't sit well with me - would prefer them to let the policy lapse.

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I really think hippy1975 is an excellent suggestion and a win/win situation which you should give more consideration to as I'm sure your parents would be delighted with this.

If the policy is paid out on the death of one party or if only part of it is paid out, not sure how these things work, you could make it clear to your parents that if either of them need the money for any reason whatsoever that its there for their own use even though you have taken over the payments and its only on that basis that you will agree to take over the payments.

BlackPanda, you probably need to explain what type of policy this is. Could they take the value of the policy now and separately take out a new life cover policy? Life cover is probably 50% cheaper now than it was 30 years ago - if you are not in poor health. Did they buy through a broker or direct?

Blackpanda, if you ask a question couldn't you kindly check back to reply to those who give their time freely to try and help you?