Endowment : Yearly Statement...explaination of terms/wording

Torby

Posted a few days ago....only just found my paperwork....how bad is that...

Ed Investor advised me to ring...now I've found the details I will do it tomorrow....meantime...I am a bit of a numpty, perhaps someone can clarify a few things for me...

2007 Yearly Statment posted to us in March 2008

Maturity Date: 09/03/2009 I can understand that bit...:j

Sum Assured: £8618 is this amount guaranteed

Total Regular Bonus: £11210 is this guaranteed

Am I right in thinking that I'm guaranteed £19828 :j whatever happens, in other words I'm guaranteed the Sum Assured plus the Total regular bonuses accrued to date?

Sorry about sounding like a financial dimwit....but I am a great guitar player!:j (well swmbo thinks so, she didn't marry me for my financial brain)

and finally....the last letter we got in August 2007 said "Green Letter" plan still on track....do I still have time to complain about mis-selling?

A year ago, my wife contacted one of these mis-selling firms and they wrote to Clerical Medical about mis-selling...then wrote back and told us because we went through an independant financial adviser....who went out of business ...there's nothing we could do.....

Surely even an IFA must have some tie-in or receive recompense from Clerical Medical for selling their policies acting as their agent?...if he's now out of business....should Clerical Medical not share the blame....should I download the template letter from here and try again?

I still believe the answer my wife got was wrong.

Thanks everyone so far....I'll post the details tomorrow after I phone Clerical Medical.

dunstonh

and finally....the last letter we got in August 2007 said "Green Letter" plan still on track....do I still have time to complain about mis-selling?

So, your endowment is on track to provide a surplus but you still want to complain? What do you hope to achieve?

An endomwent complaint is when you complain that you shouldnt have been sold and endowment but should have been on a repayment mortgage. Redress payments are calculated on how much you are out of pocket. As you are not out of pocket you get nothing. Indeed, logically you should have to pay the insurance company. Although sadly that option is not available.

Surely even an IFA must have some tie-in or receive recompense from Clerical Medical for selling their policies acting as their agent?...if he's now out of business....should Clerical Medical not share the blame....should I download the template letter from here and try again?

Clerical Medical have no liability for the recommendation. They just received an application in the post. Although if you wish to give me your surplus I will uphold your complaint for you

opinions4u

I think you should complain.

Even if it was mis-sold, a successful complaint would put you back in the position you would have been had you not been sold the policy.

I'll give you back all your premiums and a little bit of interest if you give me the full proceeds from the policy.

I know you describe yourself as a financial dimwit, but this is like taking a winning lottery ticket back to the newsagent and asking for your £1 back.

Torby

Thanks for the replies:

opinions4u and dunstonh,....I was also looking for clarification of the terms with relation to what is actually guaranteed...

so can I assume, the figures I quoted are guaranteed?

The "Green Letter" was in August 2007....as CM only send them every 2 years...how will I know if its still on track at the moment....hence my question about "what is guaranteed"

finally, probably like everyone else, when we took out the endowment we were told the "surplus" would help pay for our kids education...and by that I mean we were told we could expect probably another 10K on top when it matured....I assumed thats what was meant by "mis-sold"...now if "breaking even" means we wouldn't be entitled to make a complaint, fair enough...I wasn't aware like you guys that it only means "out of pocket"...sorry if I took it to mean I wasn't going to get the extra £10k I'd been led to believe I would.

dunstonh

finally, probably like everyone else, when we took out the endowment we were told the "surplus" would help pay for our kids education

No. Not probably like everyone else. The majority of endowments were correctly sold and even on complaints, the majority are rejected.

You could get a large lump sum back at the end is totally compliant and correct. You would get a large lump sum back at the end is an upheld complaint. 10-15-20 years later, are you sure what was said? Sure, lots were mis-sold but not on the scale you suggest. Also, I believe there was a lot of complacency in there as well. Endowments had been round for a long time and had paid big surplus amounts for years. Very similar to those a few years back that went on about property always going up.

My experience was that most people went with endowment because the monthly cost was lower than a repayment mortgage by around 5-10%. What they paid monthly was the main driver. Although the period I did them was during the last house price crash so monthly costs were important.

I assumed thats what was meant by "mis-sold"...now if "breaking even" means we wouldn't be entitled to make a complaint, fair enough...I wasn't aware like you guys that it only means "out of pocket"...sorry if I took it to mean I wasn't going to get the extra £10k I'd been led to believe I would.

If you make an endowment complaint, you are saying that you should have been sold a repayment mortgage instead. If the complaint was upheld, then they have to put you back in that position as if you had been on that from the start. So, your endowment is doing better than that. Plus you have had the lower monthly costs (as well as the benefit of MIRAS and possibly double MIRAS back in the past).

Torby

Thats a bit clearer now, thanks for that...obviously been caught up in the MSE "mis-selling" fervour....told you I was a bit of a dimwit though....

thanks again.:beer:

BeeUK

2007 Yearly Statment posted to us in March 2008

Maturity Date: 09/03/2009 I can understand that bit...:j

Sum Assured: £8618 is this amount guaranteed CORRECT

Total Regular Bonus: £11210 is this guaranteed CORRECT

Am I right in thinking that I'm guaranteed £19828 :j whatever happens, in other words I'm guaranteed the Sum Assured plus the Total regular bonuses accrued to date?
CORRECT - there may also be an element of Final Bonus added at maturity to increase this amount, but this is not guaranteed