The account is empty? Insurance surrender value can be enforced too

The tax office lists came back: no house, no car, no salary, a few hundred dollars in the bank. Yet plenty of people with empty accounts hold a stack of insurance policies: endowment, investment-linked, annuity, often worth hundreds of thousands in surrender value. At the end of 2022 the Supreme Court's Grand Chamber confirmed that a policy's surrender value is the debtor's property and the enforcement court can terminate the contract and make the insurer pay you. This is Part 4 of the no-money series.

01Why a policy can be seized: ruling 108 Tai-Kang-Da 897

Supreme Court Grand Chamber civil ruling 108 Tai-Kang-Da 897 (December 2022) unified the law: the policyholder (the debtor) of a life insurance contract has a claim against the insurer for the surrender value, and that claim is property. Under Article 115 of the Compulsory Enforcement Act the enforcement court can issue an attachment order and, if needed, terminate the contract on the debtor's behalf and order the insurer to pay the surrender value to the creditor. Before the ruling courts differed; since then the rule is national.

02Step 1: in your enforcement application, ask the court to query the Life Insurance Association

You do not need to know which policies they hold. Under "assets to be enforced" in the application write: request that the court query the Life Insurance Association of the Republic of China for all life insurance contracts in which the debtor is the policyholder.
The association holds nationwide policy records, and one letter from the court reveals which insurers hold policies for the debtor and the policy numbers.
With the results, ask the court to issue attachment orders to each insurer, barring the debtor from surrendering, borrowing against or changing the policyholder of the policies.

Life Insurance Association of the Republic of China — The body the court queries; individuals cannot look up someone else's policies themselves
Judicial Yuan (sample enforcement application)

03Step 2: the court terminates the contract and orders the insurer to pay

After the attachment order reaches the insurer, the court gives the debtor time to deal with it; if they do nothing, the court can terminate the contract in their place.
The insurer calculates the surrender value and pays it to you under the court's collection or transfer order, up to the amount of your claim.
If there is a policy loan outstanding, it is deducted from the surrender value first.
The whole exchange runs through the court's enforcement division; your job is to follow progress and supply any documents the court asks for.

04The 2025 Insurance Act amendment: which policies cannot be enforced

After the Grand Chamber ruling, the Legislative Yuan amended the Insurance Act in June 2025 to add protections. Four points to check before you apply.

Threshold: a policy whose surrender value is below 1.2 times the local minimum living expense times 6 months cannot be enforced. For Taipei that is roughly NT$140,000-plus; it differs by city.
Types: the surrender value of health and accident insurance cannot be enforced, and micro whole-life policies are also protected.
Right of intervention: the insured or beneficiary (usually the debtor's family) may, within a set period, pay you the equivalent of the surrender value to keep the policy alive. You still get paid.
So aim at endowment, investment-linked and annuity policies with high surrender values that fall outside the protection.

05Other assets you can enforce at the same time

Bank deposits: name the bank from the interest column of the tax office list and the court issues an attachment order.
Salary: a garnishment order to the employer, up to one third a month.
Vehicles: attached and auctioned.
Shares and funds: attached through the broker and the depository.
Rental income: if they are a landlord, an attachment order to their tenants.
Next, Part 5: they transferred the house to a family member the day after the crash; Article 244 of the Civil Code lets you revoke it.

06The rest of the no-money series

This guide is one of five in the no-money series. Every part has a reel on Instagram @lawbao.tw; comment the keyword under a reel and the full guide for that part lands in your DMs.

Part 1 | Crashed into and they "have no money"? How to check — Instagram reel
Part 2 | Step one is not suing: get an enforcement title first — Comment "名義" on the reel to get this link
Part 3 | Check their assets at the tax office — Comment "查產" on the reel to get this link
Part 4 | Insurance surrender value can be seized too (this one) — Comment "保單" on the reel to get this link
Part 5 | They moved the assets away? There is a fix — Comment "脫產" on the reel to get this link

07Things to watch

The ruling is Supreme Court 108 Tai-Kang-Da 897, issued December 2022; cite it directly in your application.
The effective date and details of the 2025 Insurance Act amendment follow the promulgated text, and the threshold amount changes yearly with the minimum living expense.
The court notifies the debtor, who may try to surrender the policy and take the cash first; ask for an attachment order that bars surrender and policy loans in the same application.
When the right of intervention is exercised, you receive the equivalent of the surrender value, no less than a direct surrender would pay.