Friends Life

[Baboonboy]

Had policy with Friends Life (former AXA Sun Life) for 15 years, paying £20/month. Just matured and have been offered £4800. Was promised more but obviously because of the reason below I guess its too much to ask. I had read somewhere that FL weren't being generous with their bonuses (£2.4billion), not sharing it around, but I'm not sure. Is this reasonable in view of the financial market meltdowns of recent years?
Many thanks
BB

[Tilly2]

Well you are getting £1200 more than you have paid in.

[albaqwerty]

just out of curiosity, how easy would it be to find out how much saving £20 a month for 15 years in savings account be worth now?

I've a feeling it would be quite a bit less than £4800 though.

[Canary42]

It all depends on the terms of the policy (Whole Life for example wouldn't pay out anything, being just insurance against death, but £20 monthly sounds a bit steep for this). How are bonuses calculated under the terms of the policy ? Are they guaranteed to any particular level ?

[tamaris]

My also matures beginning of next month and I have been quoted £44571.23.

[Tilly2]

That's a lot of money, tamaris. How much have you been paying in?

[tamaris]

Started off at I think £8 or £10 a month then £12 then £20 for the last few years, I recon I will have made short of £2000 interest

[Tilly2]

So youhave paid in £42000 and you're getting £44000 back. That can't be right, surely

[tamaris]

No that's not right. I have paid in a total £3240.00 and I will receive approx £4571 which is approx £1331 interest

[factor-fiction]

Did you get regular statements (usually annually) with an update and forecast, baboonboy?

[Tilly2]

Oh, it was a typo at 06.44? £44571.23? I thought it was a lot.:-)

[tamaris]

Sorry Tilly Yes lol. I wish.

[Baboonboy]

Thanks to everyone.
I guess I just believed the original ad when I took out the policy ("£10,000 bonus on maturity"!). I guess I don't really understand investment/finance (I had endowment mortgage, PPI, etc) and just trust the so-called experts. Bonuses have been around £50-£60pa. I can't find the original documents at the moment but you're right Tilly2 and albaqwerty. Getting around 30% return over the 15 years similar to tamaris which is a pretty reasonable return.
Thanks again BB

[Peter Pedant]

It s pretty crap to be honest.
The endowments in times of high interest were much better value

One of the endowments I had paid out around 50% predicted.
But that was with a 'dog' or 'zombie' - they had stopped taking new business and were coasting ... with the funds they had collected from yore.

The problem is, a low performing fund that turns into a 'zombie' fund (stops trading basically) the saver is still locked in for ten or fifteen years.

Imp Life that became Canada Life stopped asking punters such as me whether there was any other financial service they could offer - as a result I suspect of abuse from disappointed investors who complained they had no intention of.....

[Peter Pedant]

There is a final value function in excel

if I simplify it to £240 a year for 15 y - total conts £3600
then £4800 almost exactly corresponds to 3 per cent per annum compound

The stock market hasnt done much over the last ten y - or has it ?
it has risen over the last five y because 2008 was rock bottom.

[tamaris]

I have to say when I took it out I expected more at maturity