Endowment. Am I too late?

MattOsprey

I have sent my letter of complaint off yesterday. Then last night I found some old paperwork saying that if I wanted to complain it had to be by the 14th of January. Can they really turn my claim down for the sake of a few days?
Thanks for any help.
Matt

dunstonh

Can they really turn my claim down for the sake of a few days?

Yes. Although whether they would or not is a different matter.

defender_of_the_weak

Depends on the company in question, who was responsible for the sale?

MattOsprey

Legal & General are the company. Abacus sold it to me.

defender_of_the_weak

If he complaint was to L & G and abacus were appointed representatives you are okay as L & G do not time bar. Never heard of abacus, if they were ifas I would epect them to bar your complaint, although not all do

dunstonh

There are loads of firms with abacus in the name on the FSA register. Do you know what the full name of Abacus was or their postcode?

MattOsprey

Sorry, I have made a mistake.
The policy with the date of 15th Jan is from Zurich. The policy was with Allied Dunbar who are now part of Zurich. I got confussed as to who had changed. I also have one with L&G.

defender_of_the_weak

Dunbar will time bar, but I have never had one with the dates this close. Some companies allow 2-3 weeks beyond the date to allow for postage, but given Zurich tried to time bar a client who missed the deadline because she was fighting throat cancer, I'm not optimistic

MattOsprey

Is there a reason that they are allowed to do this?

defender_of_the_weak

I will choose my words for fear of libel.

Basically a compromise was agreed between the regulator and association of british insurers and other interested parties (banks etc) detailing that a customer had 3 years from the date 'on which they had reasonably become aware there was a problem', interpreted as the date of the first high risk letter to complain.

After this there have been some changes because people did not realise they should compalin within this period, because, surprise surprise no-one told consumers there was a time limit.

The core legislation goes back to the limitations act (I trust you are all still awake at the back) and this says the time runs from a quantifiable loss. Everything to date , as many of the IFA posters wil tell you is only projection and may or may not happen, so the core principle is unsound as is the application of the timebar rules in many instances.

HOWEVER

Getting this government and the toothless regulator to allow customers their rights is a completely different matter