Life Insurance Policy Not Cashed In

[Tilly2]

I have found a life insurance policy that relates to dad and it matured in 1997.

For some reason it was not cashed in when it matured and is still 'there' waiting to be collected.

It's a life insurance, for the princely sum assured of £452

Considering it's been sitting around, unclaimed for twenty years, does anyone know how much it might be worth now.

The Insurance company won't tell me as 'it might change before it's actually paid out'.

[mikey4444]

Tilly....I used to work in the Life Assurance business, and we loads of polices like this. Most of them were unclaimed because people had moved and didn't tell us, and consequently we were not informed when they passed away.

Have you written to the company and "made a claim" ?

Is it a whole life Plan, ie one that will pay out when death occurs, or was it a term plan, ie, one that only covers until a certain date ?

[Old_Geezer]

The assurance company can surely give a today's value estimate. They sound a rather unhelpful lot. Anyway don't financial companies set the interest rate to 0.000000000001% after maturity, or have I estimated that too high ?

[fiction-factory]

I would just wait and see. Could be anywhere between £452 and maybe £800, but you may find it's at the lower end- it may have just been invested as cash or other very low risk/low return vehicles rather than in the stock market since 1997.

[Tilly2]

Mikey, it says' £485.00 payable to survival to 15.5.1977 or at the previous death'

[Tilly2]

1997^

[fiction-factory]

1977 or 1997?
Anyway, sounds as if it will be paid but my guess is it won't be much more than £500

[Peter Pedant]

make a claim

our opinion on AB given or not will not change the value they offer which you can't shop around for anyway

and as mikey says - this happens a lot so there will be well worn rules they will follow - ( as above like no interest after maturity - this happens with govt bonds such as War Loan )

[Tilly2]

It will be paid, FF. It's just another one of those exasperating jobs one has to do when someone passes away.

I'll just wait and see. I'm not expecting it to be thousands.

[EDDIE51]

Here (I hope) is a formula to calculate the interest
Interactive compound interest formula

Use the calculator below to show the formula and resulting compound interest calculation for your chosen figures. Note that this calculator requires JavaScript to be enabled in your browser.

Principal amount (P):
500

Annual rate (r):
0.03

Compounds per year (n):
12

Years (t):
20
calculate
500(1 + 0.0312)(1220)=910.38
I have put in the figures for £500 at 3% ( 0,03) interest rate.
You can change the figures to your amount, you will have to guess the interest rate , I used 3 % which may be too low,5% would be 0.05

[Tilly2]

I have made the claim, PP. As I said, I will wait and see.

[mikey4444]

I wouldn't hold your breath as to it being worth much more than the face value Tilly....sorry !

Let us know please !

[fiction-factory]

We don't know what the rate will be though eddie- although I'm pretty sure it will be close to 0%. As PP says nothing we say will make any difference- it will pay out according to the rules

[Tilly2]

Thanks for bothering to do that Eddie. It will be interesting to see if your formula actually works, when I receive the settlement.

[EDDIE51]

I would guess it will be around £900 unless as someone said there is 0% interest which means you just get the £452.

[Hopkirk]

If it has got profits added it might be worth a lot more, but don't hold your breath.

[Tilly2]

I naively thought that, as it had been sitting around for twenty years, it would have increased somewhat in that time.

I will let you know.

Thanks all.

[Tilly2]

It will probably cover the cost of the gravedigger. :-(

[fiction-factory]

The formula may well be 485 x (1.00^20) = 485

[fiction-factory]

.. unless there is an annual management charge of maybe 1%....

[Tilly2]

......in which case, I will be paying them?