Policyholder was not told about options other than a policy loan

A woman called me. She wanted to engage me to help her to deal with a problem.

20 years ago, she took a loan on her life insurance policy. The loan carried an interest rate of 5.5%. She did not repay the loan for all of these years and the loan, with interest accumulated to more than $15,000.

She now learned that she had an option of en-cashing the bonus on her policy, instead of taking a loan.

Why didn't the servicing staff of the company told her about this option?

She could also have surrendered her policy at that time, either in part or in full.

Anyway, the value of the bonus would also have accumulated over the past 20 years, although it may not be at the same rate as the interest of 5.5% charged on the loan.

There was no way of finding out if the servicing staff had told her of these options. It would be difficult to argue about what she was told or not told 20 years ago.

She could have also raised this issue at any time during the past 20 years.

I declined to take up her case, because it does not have any merit.

I told her over the phone - sorry, I have to end this call.

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