Answers to questions about surrenders & maturities

What alternatives do I have to surrendering my policy?

Surrendering means cashing in your policy early. It may mean that you get back less than you have paid in. It may also mean that you get back less than if you continued it. If you cash in a policy that includes life assurance, the life cover will stop.

Before you decide to cash in your policy you should consider other choices that you may have. These depend on the type of policy you have but could include:

• selling your policy. You might get more money by doing this than you would get by cashing it in. If you have a with profits endowment or whole of life policy, you can get details of companies that buy and sell these by calling The Association of Policy Market Makers on 0845 833 0088 or visiting www.apmm.org/about.asp
• reducing your premium
• taking a break from paying your premiums. If you want to restart paying premiums, you must pay the unpaid premiums within a year
• stopping paying your premiums.

For further information about the options available for your particular policy or cashing it in please contact us. While we can provide information, we cannot advise you what to do. If you are in any doubt as to what to do, you should contact a financial adviser for advice. If you do not have a financial adviser, you can get details of local financial advisers by visiting www.unbiased.co.uk. Advisers may charge for providing such advice and should confirm any cost beforehand.

If your policy has been assigned, it means that rights to claiming on the policy have passed to someone else, for example a bank or building society. In this case, before you can cash it in we will contact the bank or building society.

Can you give me the surrender or maturity value of my policy on the telephone?

To avoid any possible misunderstanding we do not give surrender or maturity values over the telephone. If you ask us for a surrender or maturity value, we will write to you.

How will you pay me the maturity value of my policy?

You do not need to contact us when your policy matures as we will automatically send you a cheque unless you have assigned your policy. If you have assigned your policy, it means that rights to claiming on it have passed to someone else, for example a bank or building society. In this case we will contact the bank or building society first.

If you have assigned your policy absolutely, it means that ownership has passed to someone else. In this case we will send the cheque to the new owner.