Life Policy query.

[DirectDevil]

I am looking for a pointer as to where to find an answer to a query that I am trying to sort out for an elderly relative.

My uncle had a life policy with Norwich Union taken out over 20 years ago. It was a "triple investor". Each year he got a statement showing the number of units he had acquired and the unit price.

He cashed it in last month but seems worried that the unit price of Euro 18.574 is very low given that it was Euro 20.609 in April 2008 and Euro 23.829 last year.

The policy is managed by Hibernian Life now since the merger with Norwich Union and is shown as being invested in the "MANAGED 1" fund.

I have looked at the Hibernian Investment Managers website to try and track the recent history of values but I cannot make head or tail of what I am looking at !

Can anyone please tell me where I might look to find the history of unit price values for this product ? Thanks.

 

[Independence]

Hello,

I think you're saying that your uncle is worried they made a mistake. The price drop seems about right to me, regrettably.

As you might have gathered, when the life companies say 'managed' they really mean 'mixed' and they are not trying to make your uncle money or protect him from the downturns. If he thought they should there is good information on this point at the fee-only educational site

[broken link removed]

and the course will show him how to invest what he's go left.

As regards performance, this link isn't 'Managed 1', but 'Managed 2', nevertheless it should be a good indication.

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/UK/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?lang=en-GB&id=VAUSA062M5&investmentType=SA

Life companies withdraw funds that are not doing well from public view - so you'll need to find current values on the NU web site, and this probably is your starting point:

[broken link removed]

except since he's already cashed it in, so you might have to ring them. This kind of thing from the life companies drove me crazy, and was a major factor in telling every client to take all their money and put it with a private bank or stockbroker account for better control and less charges.

 

[DirectDevil]

Thanks for that Independence.

You confirm what we more or less suspected. I think that he is a bit miffed that he dropped 25% on the value of his investment over a year.

Volatile or what !