Best price endowment selling process and the future of TEPs
The traded endowment market exists because over 100,000 people each year decide to sell endowment policy or surrender endowment.
Most endowment life insurance policies were originally taken out for 25 years, but the majority of policyholders never wait until maturity for cashing in endowment and surrender them. In many cases, the endowment policy surrender values offered by insurance companies are less than the market value. In addition, investors are keen to buy traded endowment policies as part of their investment portfolios. The market exists because there are people willing to endowment cash in and people wanting to buy them for investment purposes.
In 2003, the government estimated that about eight in ten of the endowment policies then in force were unlikely to pay off the mortgages they were taken out for. Since then, nearly 70% of those facing a shortfall have re-mortgaged, sought financial advice or applied for compensation. However, about 700,000 people had still done nothing about their endowment shortfall. The general rule is that, people must complain within three years of...