Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

Crazy_Saver

shandy wrote: »

hello

we took out an endownment in 1992, on the advice of the financial advisor for bristol and west. in 2003 they informed us the endownment policy would not pay off our mortgage so we changed it to a repayment with them (they charged us 50 pounds for this).

Hi shandy, welcome to the boards.

I am not for one minute trying to say that our case is identical to yours, but we are currently in the process of a mis-sold claim as well as selling our dud endowment. We aim to use the money from the sale to pay off part of our mortgage then to change the loan to repayment.

Woolwich/Barclays have told me that as long as I give them a copy of our "Red Alert" shortfall statement, this will prove to them that our reason for changing our mortgage is due to an endowment shortfall and therefore the £50 charge will not apply. I think that this is pretty fair of them considering the endowment is nothing at all to do with them.

My point is, maybe you could look into getting your £50 charge refunded. Especially as they sold you the original endowment. Surely it's worth a try. Good luck!

Crazy Saver

dunstonh

shandy wrote: »

hello

we took out an endownment in 1992, on the advice of the financial advisor for bristol and west. in 2003 they informed us the endownment policy would not pay off our mortgage so we changed it to a repayment with them (they charged us 50 pounds for this). are we still able to persue for compensation for the mis sold endownment? also we cannot find any documentation relating to the endownment is this a problem?

new to this site. finding it very interesting!

thanks:T

You are almost certainly time barred. You have three years from being notified of a high risk of shortfall to make a complaint. As you knew about it in 2003 and took action, those three years are up.

southsider

My wife was missold the endowment policy and we seeked advice and a company have taken the case but we never heard from them back, that was 2 years ago.

We have just received a letter from the policy provider saying that you have a shortfall, so the policy will not even paid our mortgage if something happens.


Do you think we still have a case here?

Thanks

dunstonh

We have just received a letter from the policy provider saying that you have a shortfall, so the policy will not even paid our mortgage if something happens.

You have a shortfall position on paper if certain rates of return are achieved. You may not have a shortfall at the end though. Or you could have a bigger shortfall than the projections show. They are just examples. Not guaranteed.

Do you think we still have a case here?

We know nothing about your case so cannot really comment. However, with endowment claims coming to an end now as time bars kick in, you may have run out of time to make a complaint.

southsider

dunstonh wrote: »

You have a shortfall position on paper if certain rates of return are achieved. You may not have a shortfall at the end though. Or you could have a bigger shortfall than the projections show. They are just examples. Not guaranteed.



We know nothing about your case so cannot really comment. However, with endowment claims coming to an end now as time bars kick in, you may have run out of time to make a complaint.

Thanks for your reply
The policy was bought in 1992 and we have sold the house and bought another one.

Would this affect the claim if we have one?

Is there any company who provide free advice or something like that because I need my wife to speak to someone face to face as i do not have the full details of the policy.

Thanks again

dunstonh

Would this affect the claim if we have one?

Only if you switched from interest only to repayment mortgage.

Is there any company who provide free advice or something like that because I need my wife to speak to someone face to face as i do not have the full details of the policy.

Any IFA should be able to do a review. They may give a quick and dirty review free of charge.

As it is a regulated product, only IFAs can give you advice on it.

ipaqowner

After having my complaint for mis-selling an endowment mortgage rejected by Winterthur Life UK Ltd and no result from a "no win no fee" company I have now received, out of the blue, a letter from Winterthur who would like to reconsider their decision. With this letter they have sent a questionnaire and at the end of this they give me 2 options.
"Option A" is any loss is calculated using the Halifax Standard Variable Rate and "Option B" is my exact mortgage details used in the calculation.
They cannot advise which option I should select and I am therefore in the dark as to which one would be more beneficial to me.
Could anyone help explain the difference and which one would suit me best please?.

dunstonh

Could anyone help explain the difference and which one would suit me best please?.

Either could depending on your mortgage history. Most people dont have a record of their dates and rates going back over the years so using Halifax SVR is often the convenient method to use.

Also, you need to be wary of the cost of delay. The markets dropped last week and a calculation today would use today's value. As the markets recover, if you delay that calculation, your endowment value could rise and you would find a higher value used and that will result in a lower redress payment. Assuming any is payable as a complaint can be upheld and not result in a penny.

ipaqowner

dunstonh wrote: »

Either could depending on your mortgage history. Most people dont have a record of their dates and rates going back over the years so using Halifax SVR is often the convenient method to use.

Also, you need to be wary of the cost of delay. The markets dropped last week and a calculation today would use today's value. As the markets recover, if you delay that calculation, your endowment value could rise and you would find a higher value used and that will result in a lower redress payment. Assuming any is payable as a complaint can be upheld and not result in a penny.

Thanks for the quick reply.
My wife says she does have some records of the dates and rates but since we've had the mortgage for just over 23 yrs the rate has gone up and down.
She's going to check them and get them in to date order.

Why do you think Winterthur are doing this...sending this letter out of the blue after all this time?

dunstonh

Why do you think Winterthur are doing this...sending this letter out of the blue after all this time?

It could be a few reasons. Maybe during a compliance visit from the FSA, there were failings in their checking and they were "asked" to review past cases. Or perhaps an individual they used for checking was found to have made mistakes on cases and all his/her cases are being reviewed. That is normal with complaints - a sample of similar is checked and if found to have occured often, then all cases will get reviewed again.

Dont get too exited yet though. Redress payments are much lower today than a few years back as endowments have recovered and many are getting back on track or heading to surplus (although some are getting worse and have no hope of recovery).

Wait until you know the figure before you go out and treat yourself