endowments & Vickers Anderson - advice please

jelly47

Hi, all! i'm new to this thread and site: hope this is right place to post:

i have been contacted by Vickers Anderson Consulting, re my 2 endowments, sold to us in 88 & 89, financially naive, newly married etc + endowments run into my retirement. Vickers Anderson say they'll take on the case for 15% of final settlement.

endowment 1 is with Teachers Assurance to repay £32K. VA are keen to start with this one, but the latest (jan 05) letter gives shortfall of £4800 at 3.5% per year, but only £1700 at 5.5% per year. Is, say, 4%, a reasonable expectation ? in which case we are not too far off - maturity date is 2013. VA reckon this could be worth 5K or 6K in compensation, but is he just shooting the breeze ?

endowment 2 with Barclays is much worse. target amount 10K, matures 2014. figures for Dec 2004 give shortfall of £4800 at 4% per year.

any advice gratefully received,


jelly47.

dunstonh

Is, say, 4%, a reasonable expectation ?

As much as anyone can guess, then 4% long term is certainly reasonable. Moving towards 5% long term and maybe 6% if sustained growth.

VA reckon this could be worth 5K or 6K in compensation, but is he just shooting the breeze ?

Hard to say. If upheld, the difference between where you would be on the repayment mortgage and where you are now with the surrender value of the policy would be calculated. A small shortfall like that is unlikely to generate much compensation. After all, if the shortfall projection is £1700 at maturity, then is it likely that compensation of £5k would be payable?

endowment 2 with Barclays is much worse. target amount 10K, matures 2014. figures for Dec 2004 give shortfall of £4800 at 4% per year.

Actually, this one is probably the better one. Its likely to be unit linked. Unit linked plans invested in equity funds are more volatile but have greater potential for growth. You dont say where it is invested but assuming the default balanced managed fund, that has returned 6.87% p.a over 20 years. and is very consistent, albeit not spectacular. It hasn't fallen below 11% p.a. for the last 3 years. Using the 6% projection figure on this one would be closer to the likely future return. However, that really would depend on the investment fund(s) you are in.

defender_of_the_weak

Yes VA are shooting the breeze. No one knows exactly or even inexactly how much compensation will be payable as this requires your entire mortgage history since inception. Much will depend on whether or not the question of mortgages in retirement is upheld as this would increase any offer of redress.

Anecdotally, VA can be quite agressive on the phone so expect more calls. For alternative quotes and prices check out the Guardian Jobs and Money site or try This is money from the mail on sunday finance pages.

Even cheaper would be to do it yourself with the help of MSE contributors

jelly47

many thanks for your helpful replies, which i am studying,

jelly47.

jelly47

Sadly just ten days after i signed up and paid their supposedly returnable fee of £495, Watchdog have exposed Vickers Anderson Consulting.

go to Watchdog and Vickers Anderson for details.

regards to all, jelly47.

dunstonh

Expect a few more to appear in the headlines. I was reading that 10 firms are in the firing line with more expected.

defender_of_the_weak

Who are the ten others can you post a link to an article or pm me the information please

dunstonh

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=116430&d=pnd&h=pndh&f=pndf

The article on the website is worded differently to the article published in the paper on 12th Jan. It was the front page story.

cityblues

Never pay up front fees for mis-selling of endowment claims. Use a company recommended that takes a % of the payout at the end. Get the money paid in your name, then pay your fees once you have banked your cheque. Better still Do-It-Yourself. The forms are not that difficult to complete if you have kept all your bank and mortage statements. All that hording of paper work is worth it. Although I did pay 25% + VAT, I think I did most of the paperwork myself

defender_of_the_weak

Dunston

Finally managed to make the link work, all a bit of something and nothing from a voluntary regulator. The life companies etc all have massive resources and background staff to identify good and bad complaint handlers. If they did this instead of applying stupid un-enforceable tactics that don't work, they could report the bad ones to the local trading standard offices. Also flatly refuse to pay non-regulated third parties along with many other steps that could be taken (we are non-reg but have always worked from day one on the basis that the client gets paid and an invoice is issued for the fee)

We have been reporting the tactics of Vickers Anderson for over a year for what we believe were breaches of data protection amongst other things

dunstonh

The situation seems to be similar to the financial services industry. The good advisors suffer with the bad image given by the bad ones. In this case, you are suffering with the image of the bad ones.