The Sales Process

The process from valuation to completion normally takes approximately four to seven weeks. This will vary depending on the workloads of your Life Offices and the policy purchaser (Market Maker).

There are four stages to the selling process:-

Valuation
Accept the offer, the sales contract
Confirmation checks of policy details and titles
Change of Title & Completion

Valuation

The first step is for you to submit to us you policy details through our online form by clicking here. In addition to your endowment policy documents you will need to obtain the current 'surrender value' of your endowment policy and the name of the company that sold you the policy. This information can be obtained over the phone from your Life Assurance Company.

We will then establish those policy buyers who are interested in the policy after which we will contact each party to negotiate, to see if we can obtain more value for your policy. Once we are in a position to provide you with an offer for your policy, we will contact you with the details of the offer and discuss how we can assist you with the successful sale of your policy.

Then its decision time, you need to decide whether you're better off holding onto your policy or if you want to sell it. With some policy buyers we are given a grace period of a week to 14 days to let you make that decision, however the trend is rapidly moving to on the spot quotes where an offer made is only secured for a very short period.

If you decide not to sell, you can always come back to us to receive another quote. We also have software systems in place which will rate your policy against market conditions so if a policy gets a better offer at some later time, our system will flag it up and we'll call you.

The endowment market changes it demand almost daily, so a policy which was highly tradable today may not be tomorrow, there is no way of foreseeing which policies will be popular in the future. This is due to a number of factors consisting of life office bonus rates and market supply and demand.

You can trust us to find a great offer for your policy.

The sales contract

If you decide to go ahead with the sale of your policy you will be issued by the policy purchaser an acceptance slip. From this point onwards you will be dealing with the policy purchasers solicitor. In some cases an acceptance slip will be sent you to sign in order to proceed with the sale. In other cases only a contract note will be issued as the next stage - The offer on the contract note will be guaranteed for a specified period of time in which you are able to decide on your chosen course of action.

On the contract note there will be an agreed date for the 'purchaser' to take over the premiums. The 'purchaser' of the policy will be responsible for reimbursing the 'seller' with any premiums paid after this date should they have been paid by the 'seller'. The premium reimbursements will be paid to the 'seller' at the same time that the sale proceeds are paid.

If you choose to accept the offer you simply sign and return the contract note and the attached letter of authority, this will enable the policy purchasers solicitor to contact the life office to obtain any relevant information regarding the transaction. The solicitor will then write to you to request any further documentation that is required i.e. the policy document and proof of identity.

Once you have signed a contract, it is a binding legal document and you are then obliged to sell your policy at the stated offer, subject to the policy purchasing Terms of Business.

You will then receive a cheque for the agreed amount within a week. You have no fees to pay as the buyer covers the cost of the sale.

Once the policy has been sold, it remains in place on your life, but the new investor pays premiums for the remainder of the term and benefits on your death or at maturity.

Zucker Associates Limited, and the policy purchasers we broker with, operate on an 'execution-only' basis and so are not able to advise you. If in doubt you should obtain advice from a qualified independent financial adviser. It's is always worth filling in your details just to see if you would be better off selling your policy rather than surrendering it back to the life office.

Confirmation checks of policy details and titles

At this stage the solicitor acting on behalf of the Marker Maker (Policy Purchaser) will check with the issuing life office that the policy details are correct, and importantly that there have not been any amendments that Zucker Associates Limited or the Market Maker was not previously made aware of. An example of this is that the policy can not be held as collateral against a loan. The solicitor will also conduct a bankruptcy search on the policyholder(s).

Change of Title & Completion

Once all the checks are completed and there are no issues found, the policy is then prepared for reassignment, the purchaser will issue a cheque to the solicitors. The policy will then be reassigned at the same time as a cheque being issued to the seller. Congratulations! The cheque and the policy have been exchanged and the change of title is complete.