moneypenny20

We have the house on the market but have decided to re-negotiate the mortgage so we can release the endowment policy to fund the move. We will therefore have no life insurance.

We are taking out a new policy but it will only cover the life of the mortgage because they won't cover us when no longer resident in the UK.

Question: what has everyone else done in order to be covered whilst travelling (is one way travel insurance enough) and when did you set up new policies once resident in Aus.

We need to find a reputable IFA who can give real advice about our situation - easy huh! but just wondered how anyone else sorted this one out.

bal56

Not much help but...
I've just spent the day (when I should have been completing my handover at work) phoning round the providers of our various life and critical illness policies.
It's a fair old minefield.
Even if the policies are still valid Down Under, many of the T&Cs change.
I think we'll keep most running whilst we move and then seek more competitive deals down under (or scap them all cos we need the dosh!).

This process included having to deal with Norwich Union! They must have lost business in outsourcing their call centre to the subcontinent - their call handlers do the basics well, but are hopeless when questioned regarding the finer details of policies. (They lost my car insurance business earlier this year for similar reasons).

moneypenny20

We had to phone the Halifax today. Very helpful girl pulled up our details, showing name and address etc and then asked what country we were in. "excuse me" - she reckoned it didn't show it, Presumably if it doesn't show up, they don't need it and last time I looked I wasn't allowed to call myself English, I am British so would assume Herts is in Britain

andrew63

I checked with my UK life insurance policies (I had 2, one for my mortgage and one independent) and they both confirmed that my cover included when I was abroad - even though I had sold my house months earlier, I kept the policy going after getting a letter from the lender "releasing their interest" in the property.
However, as soon as I got here I set up new policies (took a couple of months, medicals etc.) and cancelled the UK ones.
I used http://www.sherwin.com.au/. Web site is not informative but I found them very friendly and I am happy with what they have done for me (consolidated 6 pensions from 2 countries into our own superannuation fund, life insurance and disability insurance all for me and my wife).
They are based in Brisbane, as are we (well, close anyway)

Andrew

moneypenny20

Another one for my favourites list. Thank you.

worzel

I have 2 endowments as well. The smaller one will be cashed in as soon as we get the visa to pay for shippers etc. I was going to cash the other one in as well but taking your point about life insurance I will keep it going for a while until we sort something out to replace in out there. Top tip!