Financial News

Have you been mis-sold life insurance? You could be owed THOUSANDS

Isobel Lawrance 30th May 2023 No Comments

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Have you ever cancelled a life insurance policy because the monthly premiums increased unexpectedly? If so, you could be owed tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation. This is because you may have been the victim of mis-sold life insurance.

Have I got a claim?

In recent months, it has come to light that several well-known UK insurance companies have mis-sold a certain type of life insurance to customers. In doing this, they hid the fact monthly premiums would be increased substantially, and for many, the price increases have been astronomical.

This forced many customers to cancel their policies due to the monthly payments becoming unaffordable. After cancelling, the money put into the insurance policy was lost, along with the comfort of knowing loved ones would receive a payout upon the policy holder’s death.

How can I get my money back?

This is clearly unfair, but WLI Claims can help. Set up by a leading UK law firm, WLI Claims is working on a no-win no-fee basis to help those affected claim compensation from their insurance companies.

No-win no-fee means just that; you will not have to pay for any costs or fees unless you win.

If you or someone you know cancelled a life insurance policy due to an unexpected rise in premiums, click here. Enter a few simple details and WLI Claims will be in touch.

The origin of WLI Claims

WLI Claims was born from an experience that may be similar to yours. A mis-sold life insurance policy, thousands of pounds lost and feeling wronged.

“A number of years ago I took out a life insurance policy with a well-known life insurance company. I did this to support the financial future of my family – after all, the policy was guaranteed to pay out on my death as long as I maintained my monthly payments. Having gone through the documents, I signed up with the understanding that my monthly payments would remain consistent during my lifetime and that my family would be paid when I died.

“Sadly, I was mistaken. After ten years of paying for the policy, I noticed that the monthly payments started to increase. Little by little initially, so I didn’t really pay any attention until I eventually noticed that they had significantly increased from the original figure quoted. Despite being a retired solicitor and reading the documentation carefully, I had not noticed anything in the sales material to suggest that after a number of years my monthly premium payments would go up every year as I got older.

“When I queried this, I was informed that if I decided to cancel my policy, I would lose virtually all the money I had paid to date. And furthermore, if I wanted to maintain the monthly premium at the previous rate, the guaranteed pay out on my death would be adjusted and it would be just a fraction of the amount I had agreed. In short, unless I continued to pay ever-increasing monthly premiums, I would lose virtually everything that I had paid the insurance company and my family would lose the financial security I intended the policy to provide.

“I felt trapped and let down. After some serious thought, I decided to cancel the policy because I realised that the premiums were becoming unaffordable. After I cancelled my policy, I could not shake the feeling I had been wronged and was the victim of an injustice. My wife encouraged me not to take this lying down and I started legal action.

“I discovered that:

In practice, this type of life insurance had very little likelihood of ever being paid out.
Policies were marketed and sold at enticingly low monthly premiums in order to get the customers in the door.
Customers were rarely given any warning about how the premiums would rocket – and continue to rocket – as they got older – just when they and their families really needed the protection of life insurance.

“The legal proceedings were long and drawn out. It was also expensive and stressful to take on a multi-billion-pound insurance company. However, I worked with a very talented and driven team and, after three long years and just weeks short of going to court, the insurance company agreed to settle out of court. Through this settlement, I received compensation from the insurance company to the tune of several hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“Although I felt vindicated, our research showed that there are possibly hundreds of thousands of other innocent policy holders who have found themselves in a similar position over the previous 30 or 40 years. Many of these people cancelled their policies as the premiums became unaffordable and, in doing so, lost almost everything they had paid towards their life insurance product.

“The more I looked into this, the more troubled I became by the behaviour of some of the UK’s most trusted insurance brands. What soon became apparent was that industry-wide, insurance companies were taking advantage of their customers who, individually, did not have the ability to fight back. This had to change. I spoke to the team who I worked with on my case and asked if something could be done about this wrongdoing.

“And thus, WLI Claims came into being. Working on a no-win, no-fee basis, WLI Claims is making it easy, safe and stress-free for those – or the loved ones of those – who have cancelled life insurance policies due to an unexpected rise in premiums to secure the compensation they deserve.”