Widow in France wins payout after Aviva blames cancelled policy on Brexit

Insurance company Aviva has agreed to pay out a full £12,580 to a widow in northern France after initially telling her she would get nothing from her husband’s life-assurance policy due to post-Brexit complications. Her husband had paid into the policy for 34 years.

The UK firm told Andrea Everett, 80, she would not get a payout despite writing to her late husband in August, 2025 confirming that he had current cover of £12,580 in the event of his death. He died a month after an accident at home.

Mrs Everett, from Hauts-de-France, told The Connexion: “When I called Aviva, I was read a letter that said that there’s no money for me on my claim – because of Brexit the policy could not be updated so they had cancelled it earlier in the year. I am now left with nothing, not even peace of mind.

“In September they took another direct debit from our account, so why would that be if the policy had been cancelled?

“It was a shock and it puts me in financial difficulty,” she said.

She authorised us to speak to the firm on her behalf.

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Aviva said the issue arose due to Brexit, it is no longer authorised to renew, extend or modify contracts when they come up for periodic reviews.

They said Mr Everett’s policy was reviewed in 2024, when they notified him that they could not support the current amount assured without increasing premiums or reducing the sum assured (which they may not do).

He was therefore advised, the firm says, that he could continue paying premiums until the fund ran out of money, stop paying premiums with the policy being cancelled when the fund ran out of money, or cancel immediately. He chose the former, it says, and it ran out in June 2025.

However, as Aviva failed to write to confirm this or to stop direct debits, it will now honour the original claim and also offer a further £265 payment as a goodwill gesture.

Mrs Everett told The Connexion she was not aware of the 2024 exchange Aviva referred to.

“I burst into tears when Aviva phoned to say it would pay out. Thank you for all your help, I don’t think it would have happened without that.”

Read more: woman ‘too old’ for French life insurance despite paying for 37 years

An Aviva spokeswoman said: “We apologise for the errors made in handling Mr Everett’s policy. While post-Brexit rules in France created restrictions for UK insurers, we recognise that we failed to communicate with Mr Everett clearly and made errors in administering his policy. 

"As a result, we will honour the claim value of £12,580 and refund the premiums collected after the policy was cancelled. We are reviewing our processes to ensure this does not happen again.

“We strongly encourage policyholders living in France to check their policy details and seek independent financial advice or contact their insurer directly.”

The Connexion has previously heard of other policyholders facing issues due to Aviva’s lack of authorisation post-Brexit for operations in France. In some cases a solution has been found by transferring the policy to a new UK-based trustee (tinyurl.com/aviva-trustee).

Aviva says that as the issue only arises after a review, and where modifications are found to be needed to maintain current cover, this could still occur in some cases despite Brexit being several years ago.