Ex Sun Alliance Endowment holders unhappy with Phoenix Charges ...

Hi,
You may of seen my earlier rantings on this subject - it's a truly unbelievable development after previously having to come to terms with massive shortfalls these companies are able to get away with pillaging further, what's potentially left of our savings to plug financial holes on products which appear to of been transferred from somewhere else in the first place!

I understand that Royal Sun Alliance were one of the biggest providers of endowments so there must be a huge number of people who are in the same position so would hope that at the very least, a massive petition could be generated to put pressure on the powers that be?

I notice in Phoenix's letter that they are applying for "High Court Approval to transfer a large number of non-profit annuity policies to another insurance company, Canada Life Limited" and there is various information relating to this and what it is supposed to mean so wonder if this is something that can be looked into? It's all over my head, all I know is they are using With profit policy holders dwindling money to fund their questionable manoeuvring which at the very least is unfair and unprincipled!

The net result for me is a further £2,500 shortfall added to a previous anticipated -£12,000 on £46,000 worth of endowments and as Edinvester commented on an earlier post, it's quite possible they could dip into them further before the policies finally mature - it's like they have freedom to do what they like.

So, obviously, I would like to join any action that can be taken - will monitor further feedback with great interest.

Cheers for now
John G

The actions do not surprise me. When a venture capital company (also referred to as vulture capital companies or asset strippers) takes control of a company, then you should expect them to get as much as they can, legally, out of it.

There are a few of these types of companies that have been active in buying up failing insurance companies and running them down on a low cost basis. There have been comments issued by some saying that they intend to protect policyholders and improve things over the previous owners. However, the actions with some of these is totally the reverse.

We took out two ten year savings plans £30 per month, with guaranteed profits, with the then Sunlife, aka Royal & Sun Alliance, aka Phoenix, in 1996, received a projection recently and the payout is around £3600.

If we had put that into even the poorest savings account we would have had a decent return. Feel really fed up wiht this company, coming on top of Standard Life's fiasco, think it's time the gvt got a grip of these people who can do what they like with our money and no comebacks.
Can we do anything about this?

NB We are waiting to hear what our compensation will be from Standard Life as they upheld our claim wih no argument.
Ellie

Highland_Lass wrote:

We took out an Endowment policy with Sun Life in 1984 when we bought our house. The policy will expire in April 2009 but don't know if we should cash it in now or not. We have actually cleared our mortgage but it wouldn't have come anywhere near the amount required to clear it anyway. Any advice would be appreciated.

Sun Life are not the same as Royal Sun Alliance.

Depends on the endowment funds offered, allocation rates, charges (inc surrender penalty) and requirement of life cover as to whether it should be kept or not.

Sorry it's my mistake. I meant to say it was with Royal Sun Alliance. As far as I know it's a with profits one.