Seanad debates

Wednesday, 12 February 2003

Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Bill 2002: Second Stage.

 

The comparison has been made, properly and rightly, with the 2001 Bill, but there is one significant difference. In many cases, the policyholder will be deceased, so the person entitled to claim the money is not actually the person who made the contributions to the life assurance company over the relevant period. It is also perfectly possible, therefore, that the person who is entitled to claim the money does not and never did know of the existence of the policy. They may be the nominees, the heirs or beneficiaries of the estate of the deceased person but may have no knowledge of the existence of a policy under which they might be entitled to claim money. That is a significant additional difference, which must place a greater onus on assurance companies to tell people of the existence of a policy in the first place.

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