We want to reconnect you with your policy
Why have we written to you?
It’s important we keep in contact with our customers, so they don’t miss out on important information about their policy or the benefits it offers. We sometimes lose contact with our customers when they move to a new address and forget to tell us. When this happens, we use publicly available records like electoral rolls to find the people we’ve lost contact with.
Having the correct information for policy holders means we can keep customers informed about their policy and make any payouts that are due to the right people.
What happens next?
When you confirm your details, we’ll carry out some checks so that we can talk to you about your policy. The checks help us make sure we’re talking to you and not someone pretending to be you.
Once we’ve made our checks, we can confirm if you’re a Phoenix policyholder and then update your address on our systems. As a security precaution, we’ll send a letter to your old address and also to your new address. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to ask for information about your policy.
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It's easy to confirm your personal details, we can then talk to you about your policy.
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How do people lose track of a policy?
Moving house is one of the most common reasons for losing track of a policy. When people move house, you have lots of organisations you need to contact to let them know. Financial services companies that hold your pensions or life policies may be way down the list to contact and may even be forgotten. Without a current postal address, the information about your policy will no longer reach you, so you’ll lose touch with the policies you have.
People change their name when they get married or divorced and this can make it harder for companies like us to trace the policyholder or the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are the people who would receive money from a policy.
That’s why it’s important to make sure you’ve told everyone you need to when you move house or change your name.
Could your policy provider have changed?
Another reason you might lose track of a policy is that the company has changed. Your insurer may have merged with another company and changed its name. Or it may have sold those policies to another company.
For these reasons, some Phoenix Life customers may not realise their policy is with us. That’s because they took out the policy with a different company and the policy was moved to Phoenix Life when we bought those policies from that company. Before these policies transferred, many of these companies were involved in their own mergers, takeovers and transfers. This means the company you originally took your policy out with may not be listed here.
How has my policy come to be with you?
Many customers transferred to us when we took on their policies from companies like:
| Abbey Life | Alba Life |
| Allianz Cornhill | AXA Wealth |
| Bradford Insurance | Britannia Life |
| Britannic | Century Life |
| London Life | National Provident Life |
| NPI | Pearl |
| Phoenix Assurance | Royal & Sun Alliance |
| Royal Insurance | Royal Life |
| Scottish Mutual | Scottish Provident |
| Sun Alliance & London Assurance Company |
Swiss Life |
Your questions answered
Here’s some the of the questions you might have about Phoenix Life contacting you.
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It’s likely to be an investment policy, a pension, a life policy or a mortgage endowment policy. When you’ve confirmed who you are and where you live, we’ll carry out checks on our system. After we’ve finished our checks and updated your details, it’s then that we’ll be able to give you information about your policy. We can tell you how much it’s worth and what options you have.
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If you don’t think you have a Phoenix Life policy, we’re sorry for getting in touch – but we’d really appreciate a quick call so we don’t write to your address again. Or you can simply tick the box saying not known at this address on the confirm your details form we sent with the letter to you.
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When a person dies, the executor of the will will check for any life insurance policies and gather information on the value of the person’s estate.
If someone dies without a will, the administrator of the estate, who’s usually the closest living relative takes on this role. But family members and potential beneficiaries can also investigate if any life insurance exists. Anyone can start the claims process but only the beneficiaries will receive the payout.
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We’re a member of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and we support their goal of helping people keep track of their pensions, savings and investments. The ABI has a tool you can use on its website to help you find missing life insurance policies. It also explains what you should do if you get a tracing letter from an insurer that’s addressed to you or to a former occupant of the house you now live in. You can also check the company details of ABI members on their website to see if they’re genuine.
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If you want to track down a pension you might have with another company, you can contact the free government service called the Pension Tracing Service.
They’ll search a database of more than 200,000 workplace and personal pension schemes to try to find the contact details you need. You can phone the Pension Tracing Service on 0800 731 0193 or use their online directory for contact details on GOV.UK.
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Money in a lost bank account is always yours by law, even if you wait many years to claim it. People usually use My Lost Account to trace their own account but Executors of wills can also use it. The search can take up to three months to complete. If a lost account is found, you’ll need to prove who you are and that you have a legal right to the money. When your account is reopened you can reclaim the money and get any interest you’re due if it was in an interest-bearing account.
MoneyHelper has information on tracking down lost trusts and unclaimed estates when people haven’t left a will.
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Criminals are using these uncertain times to scam people online and over the phone. Find out more about how to protect yourself from fraud and scams.
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We’re committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of our customers
At Phoenix we’re committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our customers. Our Privacy Notice explains when and why we collect personal information about our customers, how we use it, the conditions under which we may share it with others and how we keep it secure. It also explains how long we keep customer information, how customers can obtain a copy of their information and the choices available to them in regards to how we use it.
How have we helped customers?
We’re keen to re-connect with all customers that we’ve lost contact with.
We work with specialist tracing agencies to find our customers. We’ve been able to pay out policy values to Phoenix customers, executors and next of kin that we may not have been able to without the tracing.
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Here are two examples of how we’ve reconnected people with the benefits that were due to them
Case study one
Mrs X had a single life endowment plan and a single premium term assurance. Mrs X passed away but Phoenix had not been informed of her death.
With successful tracing and re-engagement with the policyholder’s executor, Phoenix Life paid out a total claim value of £104,879 to the beneficiaries.
Case study two
Mr and Mrs Y took out two whole of life policies in 1974. Mr and Mrs Y passed away but Phoenix had not been informed of either death.
With successful tracing and re-engagement with the policyholder’s son, Phoenix Life paid out a total claim value of £22,607.
I'm ready to confirm my details
It's easy to confirm your personal details, we can then talk to you about your policy.