Seanad debates
Wednesday, 12 February 2003
Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Bill 2002: Second Stage.
That general principle should apply, incidentally, beyond life assurance policies. When I was looking at this Bill yesterday, I recalled that prior to my election to the Dáil in 1992, I had a pension policy with our biggest life assurance company for three or four years, which I froze. I have not heard a single word from the company since. I was well on the way to forgetting the policy until the Minister published this Bill and, in timely fashion, reminded me of it. I have not received one written communication, electronic or otherwise, from that assurance company in the past ten years. There must be an obligation on companies to communicate with policyholders on at least an annual basis. While this should apply before the policy matures, it should certainly apply when it matures and for each year of the five years before it becomes unclaimed under the terms of the Bill.
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