After meeting Mr McPherson the pair married in a “grand, no expenses spared” ceremony at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire in 2014.
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had taken out seven life insurance policies and stood to receive £3.3 million if his wife died.
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In June 2017, he arranged for the couple to go on a mini-break to a village in the west of Denmark called Nørre Nebel.
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Three days into the trip the mother of one drowned in the indoor pool of the cottage they had rented, despite the jury being told that she hated swimming and did not even own a costume.
We’ll find out what the jury think of that soon enough.
Who knows what happened but if he did it then it seems a very crass plan. He would have more chance of her money and the life to spend it taking her through divorce court.
Also it reminds me of the film “A New Leaf” where rich waster Walter Matthau runs through all his money and has to marry a rich but hopeless heiress who is an obsessive botanist. He marries intending to dispose of her but it doesn’t work out that way. The film is played for laughs and is far more amusing than the real-life plight in the newspapers.
My cousin’s wedding was in the same place. Her husband hasn’t bumped her off though. Seem to remember we got in trouble for something during the booze-up, but can’t remember what. Think it involved getting up onto the walls, where we weren’t supposed to go.
Shades of the old joke.
“Mr O’Crooked, we note that on the 3rd of April you took out an insurance policy on the property at 22 Acacia Avenue, declaring its contents to be valued at one million pounds sterling. On the 12th of April, the building and all its contents were completely destroyed by fire.
“My client is curious to know… why the delay?”
Insurance? Of course I had insurance: I loved my wife
Is it even possible to take out multiple life insurance policies on a person? I seem to recall when applying that there’s a standard checklist with statements like “I confirm that this person has no other life insurance policy”.
I don’t think that can be true, Andrew. At one time I was running 3 life policies for my mortgage plus another 2 for savings. As I am the type whose expenditure rises to match my income and my income was rising quite fast, it felt like a good way of saving. If only I had known then what I know now.
@AndrewM
You’re correct, but as @Diogenes points out, it doesn’t* preclude you from taking out the policy. The small print will often exclude something covered by another policy.
The rising expenses scenario is very common, as many people move up the housing ladder and take on larger mortgages. Cancelling an existing long term policy to take out a newer, much larger one would incur significant costs** over taking out a smaller policy to cover the extra risk (of being unable to pay the additional mortgage cost).
Because not all (insurance) products are the same, having several to cover different circumstances with some overlap is common.
* I vaguely recall having seen this a few years ago (prevented from buying), but it was a very specific product (Life insurance policy).
** Beyond the increased sum assured, your circumstances will have changed; if nothing else, you’ll be older and older people are more expensive to insure generally. Every provider (Insurance Company) has significant premium hikes at age 50 and also usually 60 or 65.
The usual rule I think is that you can’t insure the same loss twice, so if your car is stolen you can’t claim for twice its value just because you’ve got two insurance policies.
But I don’t think that’s generally applied to life insurance, because of the difficulty of quantifying the loss. If your spouse dies and you have three life insurance policies totalling £500,000, are you over-insured or still under-insured?
Richard T
At which point, I’m re-reading Diogenes above. “M’lud, I loved her loads, loved her to death….”