Could endowment policy cash make divorces simpler?

Publication date | 07/07/2010

Getting a divorce is never easy and one of the more difficult aspects of such cases can be the finances.

For those attempting to split their belongings, it may be beneficial to sell an endowment policy.

According to Christine Northam, a counsellor working for Relate, seeing other people getting legal separations can encourage couples to break up.

Chris Radford, chief executive officer of aap, the UK's biggest buyer of endowment policies, said some of its customers who were getting divorced had decided to sell their underperforming endowment policies so they could divide their assets more easily.

Could you cope with divorce?

Ms Northam noted that marriages require considerable time and energy to keep going.

She stated: "Relate would always encourage people not to wait until there is a crisis in their marriage, but to explore their marriage, what they expect from it and whether it is actually going in the right direction."

The expert went on to suggest that when friends, colleagues and family members get divorced from their partners, couples may be more likely to question their own relationships and break up themselves.

Those who wish to minimise this risk should try to spend time with friends who are happily wed to their spouses, she claimed.

Her comments followed the release of research conducted by sociologists and psychologists from three North American universities.

The researchers found that divorce can have a domino effect among groups of associates.

According to the team, a split between immediate friends increases people's own chances of separating by around three-quarters.

Those who do find themselves parting from a spouse may benefit from surrendering endowment policies to simplify the division of assets.

Selling endowments could make divorces easier

Mr Radford, from aap, said some of its customers whose marriages were coming to an end had decided to sell an endowment policy so they could split their wealth more easily.

He added that should aap make an offer to purchase an endowment policy, it will always pay more than the surrender value offered by the insurance company.

Reasons to sell your endowment policy