john banks

My parents have an endowment (with profits I think) that pays out in May 2010 (house is paid for though). They want the cash before maturity as they have retired before their state pensions kick in, and my Mum wants to pay a lump some of NI before April to boost her forthcoming pension.

There seem to be four options:

1. Sell the endowment (given it is nearly 29 years out of 30 I think this would result in a large loss)
2. Take out a loan giving the endowment as security
3. Find a 0% credit card and put a year of living expenses on that
4. Borrow money off me

4 is not ideal as loans to family can go wrong, and there may be issues with repayment when I want to buy a house.

Which of the other options sound best?

njkmrs

If they have waited that long already it would be a real shame to cash in and lose a lump .
Help em out son ,its only a year .How long did they look after you .!!!!
I would avoid all other options to be honest .

dsmith

How much are you talking about.

Unsecured load...or secured loan against the house (if its now all paid for) ?

David Lock

Some endowments have a maturity bonus which they could lose out on.

They could check the endowment trading market but this is very flat at the moment.

I guess it contains a life insurance element so they would lose out on this if something went wrong.

Virgin do a 16 month free interest deal on their card (but 2.98% fee) and 6 month 0% on purchases

I tried to use an endowment as loan collateral with Barclays and they didn't want to know (??)

Have they considered equity release but I don't know what rates are at present?

dl

douglasb

It is definitely best to keep the endowment going when it is so close to maturity.

Have they approached the insurer to see if they will give a loan against the policy? Many years ago insurers certainly did this and would provide loan quotations if you were thinking of surrendering the policy