Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a very important point on the whole-of-life policies. I met a man recently who is now in his 90s. He took out what was called a section 60, which was a life policy to pay taxes on his death.He has lived to a much older age. He is now 93 years old and has put a substantial amount of money into a term policy but no endowment element of any description was built into it. I suggest the design of such policies needs to be looked at. The amount of money the man in this case has put into the policy is significantly more than it would be on encashment if he were to pass away. We probably need to look at the design of these products. When the man in question went to the Ombudsman, he was informed that under the terms of the contract he had signed with the financial institution, nothing unlawful had been done. It seems incredible that he has put in significantly more than what the policy is worth. It is wrong that it is being said the policy will die if he does not continue paying the exorbitant premiums.