It is possible to get more than the endowment surrender value by selling to endowment traders, and this website can send your "with profits" endowment policy details for a traded valuation. If the policy is deemed suitable a cash offer will be made to you.

 

N.B

Be sure to get the latest endowment surrender value from your life assurance office before filling in the endowment selling form

 

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An extract from an FSA consultation paper.

Traded endowment policies

3.4 Policyholders may believe that the only way forward is to surrender the endowment policy and take the cash. No one may have explained the alternatives, at least one of which may prove a better fit with the policyholder’s financial needs. It is, therefore, at this point that policyholders need to be told what their other options are –

• to make the endowment policy paid up where there is no need to realise a cash sum
• to use the endowment policy as security for a loan
• to trade the endowment policy in the expectation that this will generate a higher cash return.

 

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Endowment Surrender Value - points to note:

 

Over the last 10 years many endowment policy holders have sold their endowment policies to the traders for more than the surrender value, especially on receipt of the red warning letters from the incumbent life office, telling them of the shortfall that is expected on their policies.

There are other options on receipt of theses letter, which include continuing with the policy and altering the existing mortgage to a part repayment to make up for the shortfall in the time that is left.

The payout at maturity could be added to by taking out another type of investment plan, although that might not go down too well given the performance shortfall of the investments in general.

 

If the endowment policy holder decides to dispose of the endowment altogether, then before cashing it in an endowment surrender value should be obtained from the life office and have it compared to the endowment trading option. selling to a trader, who will continue the policy through to maturity, may well return a larger amount of cash to the policyholder than surrendering the policy.

 

An endowment surrender value can usually be given over the telephone, and it is a requirement that the surrender value is no more than week old when the form is filled in to have the endowment valued as a traded policy. The policy buyers need accurate and up to date information and the endowment surrender value is one of the most important details they need to make their buying decision.

 

Two almost identical endowment policies, same monthly premium and same time span, can have widely differing values depending on which life office is responsible for the investment. Furthermore the situation is constantly changing.

A the time of writing this Royal London, Wesleyan, Prudential, Clerical Medical, Norwich Union and Coop endowments seemed to be "flavour of the month" with the endowment traders, and anyone offering theses up for sale stood a good chance of a mark up on the endowment surrender value given by the life assurance office.

 

Unit linked endowment policies cannot be traded, so it is a waste of time getting the endowment surrender value for this type of policy other than to find out what your own life office will offer you as a "cash in" value. The daily price of the underlying units will fluctuate significantly, so timing is very important in these cases.

 

On the other hand "with profits" endowments are attractive to the policy buyers, so an up to date endowment surrender value is needed before attempting to fill in the form.

 

 

Cash offers above the endowment surrender value by traded endowment buyers

Selling endowments the quick and easy way

Selling endowments for profit