CH-2025-000032 - [2025] EWHC 2988 (Ch)

“Part 2: General Provisions” contains the following (among other provisions):

“Part 5: Regular Premium Payments” contains the following (among other provisions):

“5.1

Review Dates

We review the Plan on the following Review Dates:

(a)

The 10th policy anniversary and every 5th policy anniversary thereafter;

(b)

Any other date when we consider a review is appropriate….

Part 6 deals with Waiver of Premium Cover. Broadly such cover enables premia to be waived (and regular premium units are allocated to the Plan as if regular premia were being paid) when a policyholder suffers a period when he/she is incapacitated in a relevant way. The terms make clear that if waiver of premium applies the policy schedules or related documents will so state.

Clause 8.3 in Part 6 is as follows:

“8.3

Foreign Residence or Travel

(1)

If the life assured is outside any of the countries shown in (3) below for 3 or more months in any period of 12 consecutive months, we may vary the terms of the waiver of premium cover as we consider appropriate and we reserve the right to cancel the waiver of premium cover.

(2)

The policyholder must notify us of any change of residency under (1) above during the first 3 months any change, and failure to notify us at the expiry of the 3 month period may result in the cancellation of the waiver of premium cover or a claim for waiver of premium benefit being refused.

(3)

For the purposes of (1) above, the countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Channel Islands, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States of America.”

The Special Provisions document includes the following:

“The Plan Policies

The following Special Provision(s) shall apply to all the policies in the above Plan (i.e. every policy with a policy number consisting of the above Plan Number plus two or more further digits).

Our rates for calculating our charges for the protection cover shown below will be increased on the basis shown below:

The life assured the increase applies to:	The cover the increase applies to:	The increase to our standard rates for the cover
Mohammed Merali Dewji	Critical Illness Cover	Plus £2 per mille (this increase applies for the lifetime of the policy)
	Life Cover	Plus £2 per mille (this increase applies for the lifetime of the policy)

The company reserves the right to review the rating at any time in the future if the benefit structure changes.”

The precise manner in which the loading (also referred to as “rating”) operated is not material for present purposes. As explained to me by Mr Steadman the loading was to the cost of cover provided. The result was that less of the amount paid by way of premium would be available to create long term investment growth in terms of surrender value of the Plan.

By further document dated 23 August 2023, Prudential produced a further illustration and policy summary. Part of the information was, as the relevant headings says, “How much will it cost?”. The cover type was stated as being “standard”. The premium was stated as £4,883.40 and it was explained that it would be reviewed and adjusted in the event of Mr Dewji suffering a critical illness. In addition, the premium would increase annually by the amount required to support the increase in benefits as a result of indexation. There were further boxes on the form setting out data under the headings “What the benefits might be” and “What happens if your contributions stop?”.

The benefit of the Plan was assigned to be held on trust with effect from 25 October 2000. The trustees are Mr Dewji and two other members of his family.