Overinsured on mortgage?

Required? Who told you that? Ah yes, the insurance salesman.

Yes, it does, you are, and you should.

It's conceivable that the two policies are not restricted to paying off mortgage debt. So if you snuff it, your family will have not only the benefit of the mortgage being paid off, but of an extra £50k to spend on a luxury funeral. So it's not all money down the drain. Unless you survive, of course.

Surely anything surplus to repaying the mortgage would be certain to go to my family? Is there any way that it could not?

It depends on who the owners or beneficiaries of the policy are, and if it is written in trust. If you own it and it insures just your life and thats all, then the surplus dosh will go to the beneficiaries of your estate and form part of your estate. If it is jointly owned it will go to the survivor and will only not be partly added to your estate for tax purposes if the joint owner is your wife.. If it is written in trust it will go to the beneficiaries of the trust and wont form part of your estate.

Thanks - but now it's pretty clear (although in this context few things are completely clear to me!) that I'll have to call up NR and have a chat about this ..... I think the endowment is in joint names of myself and wife but currently assigned to NR. The term life policy, again in joint names, but to us. I do now want to be sure that the 50K over what I own would go to the survivor. Thanks again....