My mother has had one of these rip-off policies since 1998.
Paid in ( and still paying) £3200. Policy worth £1064. Early surrender value £550. All policies have their winners and losers, but the fact is the majority of vulnerable old people will lose big-time. If you must have one, die 2 years and 1 day after taking out the policy. (They don't pay before 2 years.)
Parky should be interviewed... about his scandalous advertsBy Martin Samuel - Sport for the Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 21:15, 25 October 2012 | UPDATED: 01:04, 26 October 2012
Sir Michael Parkinson is back on television next month, presenting a new talk show on Sky Arts. Masterclass, it is portentously called.
Asked what his first question would be if he was interviewing himself, Parkinson replied: ‘Why are you still working at the age of 77?’
Here’s a better one. Why, as a very well-off 77-year-old, are you still encouraging old dears to part with their savings for poor-value insurance deals?
Why, when you surely don’t need the money? Why, when the schemes you push can be a rip-off and prey on the sad little terror of a pauper’s funeral? Why, at your age?
The same question to Gloria Hunniford and daytime TV’s other celebrity shills.
Masterclass may be Parkinson’s last hurrah as an interviewer, but AXA Sun Life Guaranteed Over-50 Plan is his day job. Not least because that’s the only time you see it.
Parkinson is part of a loop of adverts that run through the sunlight hours, aimed at the sort of people watching Sky Sports News at half-past two in the afternoon. The elderly, the unemployed, the infirm, the skint and, occasionally, me.
It is a cavalcade of desperation. Ambulance-chasing lawyers, extortionate short-term loan sharks and good old Parky.
He tells wrinkly folk how to cover their funeral costs, and offers them a free pen.
The heavy rotation of his ad suggests his celebrity endorsement is paying off: more than 790,000 people have apparently signed up with AXA Sun Life.
Yet if getting into bed with the payday loans firm Wonga is a bad idea, you should have your rigid corpse chucked on a bonfire on November 5 rather than sign up for one of Parky’s plans.
Most of these payment schemes promise a lump sum on death, and that amount is limited. Contributions, however, are not. Even when you have covered your sum — and it will not rise — your payments continue until your last breath.
As people are living longer than ever, this could go on for decades. Suppose you take it out at 65 and live to 94?
In one case cited during a recent investigation, an 84-year-old woman had a guaranteed payout of £2,738, but had already put in £3,727. And while she lived, she paid — £22 a month for the rest of her life, to fund a nest egg that could not grow. Still, no doubt she enjoyed her free pen.
Maybe Parkinson doesn’t see it that way. Maybe he really believes in this project. Maybe he has one himself. What do you reckon?
At 77, why do advertising at all? Fresh from stage-school and need the money? Sure. Out-of-work actor with no gig in months? Be our guest.
Recently divorced and the missus is claiming half of every pay cheque? We’ll turn a blind eye.
But Parkinson? Sir Michael Parkinson? A man so comfortable in his skin and, one presumes, in the company of his bank manager that he can appear on a show called Masterclass without a trace of self-doubt. A man who summed up his circumstances this week by telling an interviewer: ‘I have a great life.’
This man needs to flog insurance to lonely old widows? From here we’ll ask the questions, Michael, if you don’t mind.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2223177/Michael-Parkinson-interviewed-scandalous-adverts.html#ixzz4TZZNDEJg 
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Topic: Why Parkinson should hang his head in shame (Read 5661 times)