Has anyone heard of Wize Claims?

pwlynch · 22 May 2013 at 12:22PM

Yesterday I received a phone call from Wize Claims .They somehow knew we have 2 endowments paying out later in the year,these are not linked to mortgages.Of course there is quite a shortfall but we just thought that's how it goes with these things.This company says it's the UK's pre eminent financial claims practice and that there's a good chance we can claim what the endowment would have been if the interest rates hadn't gone down.They charge £60 +VAT and say the companies who we got the endowments with have to provide all information to them.The success fee is 25% of monies refunded .I haven't heard before that you can claim back on these endowments. Does anyone know anything?can you claim yourself?has anyone done this and got their money back?I'd be interested to know.

dunstonh · 22 May 2013 at 1:38PM

They somehow knew we have 2 endowments paying out later in the year,these are not linked to mortgages.

That information is not in the public domain. So, if they have details, then there is probably a data protection breach somewhere. That is not uncommon as many claims companies use ex sales force or insurance company staff or have bought records from staff without permission of the data owner.

This company says it's the UK's pre eminent financial claims practice

I have never heard of them and they are certainly not up there with the big ones. According to the Claims management register they only started financial claims in December 2011. That is late entry for a claims company.

and that there's a good chance we can claim what the endowment would have been if the interest rates hadn't gone down.

That is complete BS. Assuming you are not timebarred (over 3/4 of endowments are timebarred) and assuming your complaint is upheld, the FSA mandated redress method does not dot work on that basis.

They charge £60 +VAT and say the companies who we got the endowments with have to provide all information to them.

Ahh, now this is looking more like it. They make £60 whether your complaint succeeds or not. Given that the endowment issue has largely historical now, this would be a nice little earner for them. Also, what if it wasnt the insurer that sold it?

So, effectively, you have a claims company that has your data without permission, giving you misinformation but will earn £60 at least from you.

I haven't heard before that you can claim back on these endowments. Does anyone know anything?can you claim yourself?has anyone done this and got their money back?I'd be interested to know.

During 2001 to around 2008, endomwent complaints were very common. There was massive media coverage. Your endowment provider would have written to you to tell you that you have a window to complain and if you dont complain within that period, you are timebarred from future complaint.

A shortfall is not grounds for complaint. That was always a possibility and investment returns are not something you can complain about. However, the sales process is something you can complain about if you feel you have reasons for complaint and are not timebarred. You seem to have understood the issues and nothing you have written suggests a reason for complaint. So, what would your complaint reasons be?

The other thing to check is if you are timebarred. Your statements would usually indicate this in the year you were timebarred or leading up to the time bar. The endowment provider will tell you as well if you want to phone them.

jamesd · 23 May 2013 at 3:45AM

pwlynch wrote: »

there's a good chance we can claim what the endowment would have been if the interest rates hadn't gone down

It's certain that they and you can claim that. It's also certain that a claim won't pay out that much.

Assuming this is for a mortgage, which it isn't, the redress calculation first looks at whether the person had the risk tolerance and understanding to use investments. If they didn't, it then roughly looks at how much the endowment is worth compared to the value of the higher repayment mortgage payment level without the endowment. There can then be a redress payment if the person is worse off after allowing for the higher amount they would have been paying in those outgoings. That is, if they really are worse off, rather than just having had more money to spend over the years.

There's no use of the projected possible values of the endowment in this calculation. Nor is there any shortfall possible if there was no fixed target. Projected values just don't qualify because that's all they were, projections based on how markets might or might not move. As soon as interest rates and inflation dropped, so did the possible numeric value of the projection.

But a drop in the size of the number doesn't necessarily mean worse off. Where it's just an investment, the lower inflation rate means that the Pound didn't fall in value as much as it would have at the higher inflation and interest rates, so it takes a smaller number to deliver the real inflation-corrected value of the investment at the end. It's entirely possible that an investment that didn't beat its numeric target actually did better than forecast in real terms.

In the case of a mortgage, the numeric value of the target is fixed, because that's the amount of mortgage capital to repay and it doesn't go up with inflation. So a drop in inflation and corresponding drop in numeric value growth of investments can hurt the ability to repay a mortgage. But this isn't so much due to the investments doing badly as inflation not reducing the real value of the mortgage by as much.

The firm is trying to get the fixed fee out of you, money it can make whether there is any merit to the claim or not. Look up "advance fee fraud" to get an idea of how the general concept of charging money whether there's any prospect of a benefit or not works. This is for education about the general principle, not necessarily the case that this specific firm is actually engaged in fraud: the protective steps for both are the same.

Has anyone heard of Wize Claims?

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