Madge e-mailed me yesterday from Hoover, Alabama, asking me if “You can get your money back from a lapsed Life Insurance policy?”

Hoover is the home to the Riverchase Galleria, this complex includes shopping, hotel and office space.

Whole Life Insurance policies that have lapse due to non-payment will in most cases be cancelled.Whole life insurance typically requires that the owner pay premiums for the life of the policy, but there are some arrangements that let the policy “be paid up” which means no further payments are every required.

Usually there is a provision that is called the Automatic Premium Loan that takes money out of the cash value to pay premiums if you stop making your premium payments. This is a safety method, because most people do not consciously stop paying on their policy especially when there is a cash value. If you have allowed your policy to lapse it means your cash value is empty, sorry, no money for you.