Badly done Helen, badly done - you're as stuffed as a Grundy turkey. Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread in time for Friday's episode...

But why did they write to Ruth about the life insurance before she told them of Heather's death? Or did she tell them and then act surprised?

hear so little from Josh and Ben that I have very little idea of their academic abilities.

AT GCSE Josh got A in PE, B in a few summats & Cs in the rest. (Yes I'm sad & filed that factoid away). The contrast was with Feebs who got A* / A across the board. Ben was an unplanned pg & an unplanned HomeB and has done sod all of interest since.

Who remembers when Tom A. was only ever present as John's silent annoying/adoring little bro? It was like a Debutante moment when Tom started speaking.

I agree that they should have told Linda about Scruff. Choccy excellent point

I didn't hear the episode, but choccy has raised a good question.

Life insurance companies don't know when the policyholder dies (there are national databases that eventually allow insurers to identify dead policyholders, but that takes time to work through*) - we just wait for someone (usually the executors or a relative?) to notify us of the death, we ask for the death certificate, then use whatever beneficiary information is available to pay out. (I'm a bit vague on all the ins-and-outs, I'm afraid death claims are just a number on the data I work with, I don't worry about the customer-servicing issues ).

In Ruth's case, she must have contacted the insurer, but may not have known what the payout was until the company had verified authority (ie that Ruth is an executor so has permission to access policy) then written to her.

*We're more proactive about annuities, where it's costing us money if the customer dies and we continue to pay out. We don't quite write to customers to say "are you dead yet?", but there are ways of checking.

Could her solicitor have done it?

In reality, it was unnecessary. We could have just had HP having more dosh than Ruth thought. It is not unheard of for beneficiaries to be surprised at how much they get!

When the will was made the solicitors will have asked about things like life insurance. Assuming they're instructed to deal with probate, which is highly likely, they will have written off to banks and insurance companies to tell them of the death.

I think that is plausible and within the bounds of creating some drama: R knows roughly the value of the house and may have been aware of cash in the bank, but she could have no idea about an old life policy, the solicitor acting as exec writes to insurer, the insurer identifies R as beneficiary and she gets a surprise cheque.

I think if a life policy is set up correctly it doesn't get paid to the estate but directly to nominated beneficiary so avoids probate.

Even if she did spot an insurance policy in HPs papers she might have assumed it was a funeral expenses policy. HP presumably also had some savings/investments left from Solly. She wasn't in a care home long enough to have eaten in to them by very much.

Just a thought.....
As Ruth is likely to inherit almost as much as they stood to gain from selling to Justin is she at all likely to pay off the siblings? (Or come under pressure to do so?)

the Justin offer was several million, wasn't it? Brookfield would have had at least half of that, maybe more - the actual division of shares has never been spelled out iirc but half a million wouldn't be nearly enough to pay off the others, even if their shares were only 5-10% each.

I'm still about HP having insurance for £200K whether term or whole of life...

I can quite believe that Ruth wouldn't have had a clue about what HP had. My Dad died recently and it took months to work out what he did or didn't have. The will was no help, as it left everything to my DM without giving us any idea of what everything actually was.

Justin's offer was 7 million.
Did much happen in last night's episode or did it consist of Shula being sanctimonious at the Remembrance Say service? Should I listen at 2pm?

It's quite conceivable that a say £100 per annum whole life policy taken out 50 years ago would now be worth over £200k. (That's the power of compound interest, and all those years of stockmarket growth in days of higher inflation). Is it conceivable that Heather (or husband) could have afforded £100pa in 1965?

By the way, I'm not authorised to give financial advice, so please see a qualified adviser if my comments are putting ideas into your head about taking out life insurance!

£100 in 1965 is £1700 in today's prices (roughly) so affordable maybe if you were on a good income.

Hmm - for Heather's house to be worth £300k in Prudhoe it'd have to be a 4,5, or even 6-bed detached house.

Link here.

No wonder she couldn't manage to stay there and look after the house on her own

Annie last night's episode was really rubbish - I actually thought its the end of the week they must have run out of script although in TA world its the beginning of the week it was just boring

I thought Shula and us ha weren't each other's greatest fans?

I was about the house price too (no nothing of the insurance).

I used to own a house in that area, and when we moved I literally couldn't give it away. We had to rent it out for less than the mortgage on interest only when no interest in anyone buying. It was a nice, 10 year old, 3 bedroom detached with garage, driveway, garden, all that stuff. In a decent area. Ended up selling for just over £100,000 after it was on the market for years.

I think Heather must have owned a castle or something!

Sorry, hasty typo above. I probably either meant 'know nothing' or 'no idea' but got them mixed into one 'no nothing'.

I'm the sort of person teaching your dc [shame]

fink

My parents bought a 30s semi in outer London in 1965 - it cost in the region of £4500. My dad had a good managerial job but his annual salary was only £1300 (I only know this because I happened to overhear a conversation about it & subsequently told my older brother it was £13,000. He roared. )

Anyway I doubt if the bog roll king in the NE could have spared £100pa (even if he was the boss then, which seems unlikely...)

Nah, it's not adding up, DDD - you'll have to find us another alternative

Fink, no nothing is brilliant!

I'm wondering wouldn't Knob want Henry to be Archer-Titchener ? or HAT for short

\link{http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51967223.html\I can see HP in this one}

There's a hell of a lot of 'executive' development in Prudder, isn't there?

Last night's episode with Shula and Vicar talking 'current affairs' quite boring.

But hey, we have the excitement of Daniel's 21st to look forward to, hurrah .

What 21 year old wants a jazz band party? and where has he dredged up these hordes of friends from - never mentioned 'em before. Maybe Alistair and Shula will organise them some party games to liven things up .

What 21 year old wants a jazz band party?

My 21 yr old DD would love a jazz party. As long as you sneak a bit of Sinatra in every now and then.