Endowment policies are a popular insurance product for savings, especially back in the days where there weren’t many investment options, or where the other options came at a pretty hefty out-of-pocket cost. But what exactly have been the returns on endowment policies historically? And are they worth our time and investment in them?

Right off the bat, there are a few disadvantages with endowment policies as an investment vehicle. The most important of these being the long commitment period required to see any sort of returns on the investment, as the surrender value of the policy before maturity is usually quite poor compared to alternative investments. Over the long commitment period, the insurance company may revise the bonus rates downwards, reducing the returns on the policy compared to the initial illustrations. And this creates more misunderstanding about the return on endowment policies, simply because few of us can even remember