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Thread: If we lived in NZ - what about UK life insuranc

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    Cambridge, New Zealand
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    Default If we lived in NZ - what about UK life insuranc

    I think the policy we have is called a term policy - it is not linked to our property but pays out upon death of either myself or my husband. I think it finishes around the time our kids hit 21 (when they should be able to fend for themselves!)

    Without me having to enquire with the company, and raise suspisions, does anyone know if it generally you can keep these going when you emmigrate?

    We would probably plan to keep on a UK bank account for other things anyway plus maybe a PO box or some kind of address forwarding system. Still in very early thinking it all through stages!

  2. #2
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    Mar 2006
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    Wellington (from the UK)
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    Hello,

    We cancelled all our insurance when we came over here, and will take out new policies as we get around to it. My guess would be that you need to be UK resident for your policy to be valid.

    It can't really hurt to just ring up the company and ask them. If it's not a problem to keep it going from NZ then you're fine. If it is a problem, better to know now rather than pay the premiums for years then find out that you can't claim on it anyway!

  3. #3
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    I still have my UK policies at the moment but I am going to cancel them and take out policies in NZ. Only because it works out to be cheaper than paying ones in £s.

  4. #4
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    Hutt Valley (ex Cheshire UK)
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    We have term insurance with Norwich Union in the UK. You do not need to be UK residents for the cover to remain valid. I guess in the longer term whether we switch cover to a NZ provider or not will come down to cost. If you have a young family, the most important consideration is to ensure continuity of cover.

    Hope this helps.

  5. #5
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    We wrote to our provider to ask what the situation would be and I would advise you to do the same so that you have something in writing if anything should happen. You certainly wouldn't want to discover that living in NZ stops you from claiming and I think it would be fairly easy for them to discover it wasn't just a holiday, and not a risk worth taking.

    We took out our insurance through Tescos, but I think Norwich Union are the underwriters. They said it was fine for us to continue with our policy as long as we continue to pay from a UK bank account. When we arrived here we just advised them of our NZ address and everything has been fine.

    I'm very happy with our UK life insurance and I don't think we would change to an NZ policy, but its something we plan to review in a couple of years. We just left a lump sum in our UK account to cover monthly payments.

    Its good to hear your thinking of all these things, they can easily be forgotten!

    Cheers

    Tia

  6. #6
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    I've still got one term assurance running in the UK, it covers me being non resident and I'm not gonna cancel it. As it's term assurance I'd get nothing back and it's a very cheap rate from the days when insurance premiums weren't so sky high.

    Payment comes out of my UK bank account and it means someone would cop a decent sum if I pop my clogs before the end of the term.

    I think my OH has a couple running too, I'd better check eh?

  7. #7
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    KEEP IT !!!!!!

    Life insurance in New Zealand is EXPENSIVE. You are highly unlikely to be able to get it as cheap as you can in the uk. Not only that - but unlike in the UK, premiums GO UP every year or every few years, so as time goes on - it gets even more expensive to hold your insurance.

    You do not have to be resident in the UK to hold life insurance policies - and they remain valid (and are covered by UK wills if you have them) when you leave. You will probably need to keep a UK bank account to pay the premiums - so you have to double check that.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Avalon
    KEEP IT !!!!!!

    Life insurance in New Zealand is EXPENSIVE. You are highly unlikely to be able to get it as cheap as you can in the uk. Not only that - but unlike in the UK, premiums GO UP every year or every few years, so as time goes on - it gets even more expensive to hold your insurance.

    You do not have to be resident in the UK to hold life insurance policies - and they remain valid (and are covered by UK wills if you have them) when you leave. You will probably need to keep a UK bank account to pay the premiums - so you have to double check that.
    As usual, Av's said it so much better than I did!

  9. #9
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    What Avalon said, but also worth looking into policies available in NZ that cover just your mortgage (can't for the life of me remember what they're called). I understand these might be relatively cheap (we're having quotes on them at the moment).

    Otherwise worth keeping UK policies and certainly do make sure you keep them active until you have something else sorted.

    And yes, all our UK policies (life and critical illness) were confirmed to be OK for living in NZ provided we paid via UK bank accounts.

  10. #10
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    Just realised that theres something I havent explained properly.

    In the UK, how much your premium costs ususally realtes to the age you were when you took out the policy.

    So if you took out a 15year term life policy when you were 25 - it would cost say £15 a month. Take out the same policy when you are 30 and it will cost £25 a month for the same amount of cover. Whenever you take out the policy - the premiums remains the same through the whole term. So taking out life insurance when young can bw well worth it - especially if you get "whole of life" policies which las as long as you do - even if its till you are 103 years old!

    If you cancel your UK policies and then try to take out a policy here and compare it with takeing out a policy in the UK - you may find that NZ looks good to start with (but it may not) - the problem is it wont stay good.

    A friend who works in Life Insurance here in NZ says that thier biggest problem is retention of customers - because as soon as the premiums start increasing - they cancel the policy. Wouldnt happen so much if the premiums were kept at the same level.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cardiff irons
    but also worth looking into policies available in NZ that cover just your mortgage (can't for the life of me remember what they're called). I understand these might be relatively cheap (we're having quotes on them at the moment).
    Have a look at Income Protection instead of mortgage repayment insurance. IP pays out not only your mortgae - but for all other bills as well - it can replace most of your salary. Better still - IP is tax deductable (I think thius is the case whether you are an employee or self employed but I cant swear to that) - so your premiums cost less in the end.

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