My late father had a share account with a credit union. Long after his death I found his book that credited him with a considerable sum of money, not including any interest that might have accrued over the years.

Credit unions

Since the credit union branch folded with the company (Irish Press Newspapers), I wrote to the umbrella organisation, the Irish League of Credit Unions, but received no reply. What can I do to liquidate this book, or will it pass to Charlie McCreevy as a dormant account?

Mr A.W., Wicklow

I have spoken to the Irish League of Credit Unions and they assure me any money your late father may have had on deposit with any member credit union is safe, regardless of whether the relevant credit union is now defunct. However, without a few more details, I cannot say for certain exactly where it is.

When the Irish Press group closed, the accounts within its credit union transferred to one of two places. Most of them were transferred to the Independent Newspapers credit union, which should be your first port of call. It is based at Independent's office in Middle Abbey Street, Dublin and the man to contact there is Harry Allen.

Accounts that did not end up with Independent were transferred instead to the local community credit union of the members involved.

The league of credit unions does not know why you would not have received a reply to your previous query but is happy to help you track down your father's account if you can contact them with more details - such as your father's name and the account number - which will be on the book you now hold.

From the sound of it, although you do not make it clear, he may have died before the Press group closure, so it may be that the money would not have transferred to Independent but the ILCU will let you know.

There is one other point of which you should be aware. Just because the deposit book gives a certain figure, it may not mean that there is that much in the account - or that the account is open at all. If he retired from the Press group, it may be that he closed or transferred the account himself. He would not have needed the book for that and, indeed, it may have been missing. So don't raise your hopes too high until the league has tracked down the account.

Whatever happens, you don't need to worry about the Minister for Finance getting his hands on the money. Even if that did happen, you would always be able to retrieve it from the State, together with any interest that might be owing.

Assuming the account is still open, there will be a death benefit payable over and above any deposit held with the movement.

Finally, you will need to ensure - as with all assets discovered long after the formal probate and inheritance process has ended - that any monies recovered are disbursed in accordance with your late father's wishes and that any tax due on them (in this case inheritance tax, if anything) is paid.

Life insurance

I took out basic life assurance with New Ireland 15 years ago. The policy is due to pay out on the death of either my husband or myself. Recently, the policy was reviewed and the insurance company tells me that I will have to double my premium payments. They tell me the policy has a current surrender value of about 1,600. More alarming is that they have told me I am likely to be facing payments of €500 a quarter in five years' time when the policy is reviewed again. Can this be right and what should I do?

Ms P.C., Dublin

As broker John Geraghty of LA Brokers puts it, these sort of "whole of life" policies would be far more accurately described as "for as long as you can afford it" policies. While they are capable of lasting the whole of your life, they can become very expensive as you are discovering.

The policy you hold is a unit linked whole of life policy, compared with the alternative "guaranteed" whole of life policy. The latter are like gold dust and are now very hard to find as they guarantee to pay a certain amount out for an agreed premium. Neither payment alters unless, sensibly, you index-link them and then only by the amount of inflation.

However, your unit-linked policy can rise sharply in cost as time passes for a number of reasons. First, such policies were often priced low to start with to make them more affordable for customers. More generally, such policies depend on the performance of the underlying unit-linked investment. A portion of every payment you make goes into this investment and the better this performs the less money the insurance company has to secure from you to fund the guaranteed payout upon death.

Unfortunately, when this policy was taken out 15 years ago, insurers were far more optimistic about the likely performance of such funds. New Ireland tells me that, in accordance with Irish Insurance Federation guidelines of the time, it projected growth of 12 per cent per annum in the funds invested. This projection has now halved. That means that people like you end up seeing a rise in premiums while people taking out such policies today would see higher relative payments from the outset.

In any case, investment performance in the past three years is unlikely to have got anywhere near even 6 per cent.

Other factors affecting the policy will be age and health. As you grow older, it become more expensive to insure your life so you are inevitably facing higher premiums at each review. Also, I understand that both you and your husband smoke. This, too, would load the premiums.

In addition, you have the policy indexed at least since 1992. That sees the amount of any ultimate payout to you rising in line with inflation but, naturally, if the payout rises, so too will the cost of providing it and so your premium. New Ireland tells me that, assuming inflation 5 per cent per annum over the 15-year period since your policy was opened, the amount of cover would have doubled, along with the price of providing it.

What to do about it is your worry? The price of the policy has now doubled in the latest review and New Ireland has indicated it is likely to double again in five years. And there's no guarantee it will end there. You are looking at sharp rises in premiums at each subsequent review - up to the age of 80. Put simply, your option, if you stay with this policy, is either to pay the increased premium each time or lower the level of benefits you receive.

Mr Geraghty suggests people holding such policies should regularly re-examine the level of life cover they need. Young couples with high bills, young children and maybe heavy outstanding borrowings take out many of these policies.

As people get older, these burdens ease. Mortgages providers usually insist there is sufficient life cover to ensure repayment in the event of death and occupational pension schemes provide certain life cover as well. Check what cover you have and see if you need as much as you hold.

Having looked at your broad situation, Mr Geraghty's advice is to go back to your broker and look for alternatives.

Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.