Considering your parents age when they took out the mortgage, this is not uncommon. Most banks accept a waiver for life cover when the applicants are over 50, they could of course have taken out cover had they wanted to but it would have been more expensive at their age and for that reason a lot of people dont. The main earner in the equation was probably your brother, hence why he was on the mortgage in the first place and is the one covered with insurance. Your father would have been approx 59 when that mortgage was taken out so payment protection, if memory serves me correctly, is normally only available to age 60 so it would have been pointless.