Advantages: trouble free investments Disadvantages: not managed by company
Introduction:
I have been a customer of Windsor Life for about 15 years so I thought it might be useful for me to share my experiences with you. I took out a private pension and a long term Additional Wealth Plan with them shortly after buying my home.
A little background on Windsor Life:
Windsor LifeAssurance was purchased in 2004 by Swiss Re Group, which has been a well known insurer to other insurance companies since 1860. Its headquarters in the UK are in Telford and has managed more than 75 million in funds under management. It specialises in investments be they lump sum, regular savings, life insurance or pensions. When I took out my policies it was with General Portfolio, however they then changed name to GAN and then were taken over or sold to Windsor Life.
My good experiences with the company:
I have been ...
Advantages: professional service, wide range of products, reasonable premiums Disadvantages: none
of quotes and I will just here point out that we did not go for the cheapest option, we elected to take our 25 year policy out with Barclays as we have both got accounts with them and both have never had any reason to question their standards or professionalism. The cheapest options available were what is known as decreasing term assurance where the lump sum payable on death decreases each year in line with the outstanding mortgage debt. This meant that if one of us died straight away £172,000 would be payable, but if one of us died in 24 years, the likely lump sum would be only £10,000-£15,000. We opted to go for level term assurance so the lump sum payable would remain at £172,000 for the entire 25 year term. It works out more expensive, but if one of us dies in 15 years, there is a nice lump sum available to assist with funeral costs ...
Advantages: None Disadvantages: Too many to list. They steal your money. Non-existent complaints procedure.
Windsor Life has just been voted the worst for not paying out annuities in new research published by 'Which' (June 2009). They were also slammed as 'duplicitous' by David Blunkett for not paying out money due to a penniless widow (May 2009).
It is clear why they are slow in paying out. They hold on to your money to make money for themselves. That is stealing.
I personally have had very bad experiences with Windsor Life. They delayed in paying out my endowment policy and really screwed up my plans. Their projected forecasts are also nothing like their final payment - be prepared to let them run away with thousands of pounds of your hard earned money to pay bonuses to their staff.
Unfortunately Windsor Life have taken over many old endowment policies. Their customers never chose them in the first place but they are saddled with them ...
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