Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

goochi

new user so please be gentle with me.
i also have a provident mutual endowment policy with Norwich Union, and am currently in the complaint procedure, not for mis-selling, i changed to repayment 3 years ago, was persuaded to buy the policy by lloyds bank, although Norwich union told me it was a financial advisor i had never heard of, young and stupid at the time and fell for it. ££££££ signs again. so decided to take that on the chin. at the time asked for a surrender value, it was not worth cashing in the endowment because it only had 5 years to run. my complaint is that in 2005 Norwich Union encouraged 28,000 policyholders to switch over to CGNU with profits fund with no exit fees. i have to pay surrender costs if i wanted to leave the fund, this is to protect the policies left behind, how come they do not have to? i don't know how this will pan out but if you're still looking at this thread i will let you know how i get on. any advice Martin would be much appreciated.

denton6

Hi has anyone heard of or used emc advisory services limited to claim against miss selling of endowment.They have sent us out the claim pack on a no win no fee no risk deal.If they win us compensation they will take 35% i know this is alot but we dont have the time or energy to try this on our own.Sorry if we sound lazy but too much going on at the moment to even consider doing it on our own.Would you use them and is there a catch apart from 35% they take if they win for you.thanks

dunstonh

they will take 35% i know this is alot but we dont have the time or energy to try this on our own.

You havent got 5 minutes to send in a letter of a couple of paragraphs?

All they are going to do is use a standard template letter that takes them a minute on MS word to knock out. When the provider sends out a questionnaire, you will still need to fill that in. Is it really worth 35% of your money?

Of course, that assumes you havent already timed out or your endowment is back on course for hitting target (using original figures and not projections).

kenshaz

This site is about taking action,imagine what you could do with 35% and how much that equates hourly to the amount of effort applied.:shocked:
Procrastination is the thief of time.

jamesd

A Judge has ruled that an IFA’s client must pay back the endowment misselling redress if their policy matures above the expected level, leaving no shortfall.

Seems reasonable to me: no loss to the consumer so nothing for the IFA to pay.

pastymuncher1

Hi First Post so please be gentle...

Some years ago 1997 i took out a mortgage with west bromwich building society, through an independent financial advisor. Along with this we took out an endownment to eventually pay off the debt, also advised and sold to me by the IFA. Some two years later when the introducutory rate had expired and the current lender would not accept us for extra funds we decided to move the mortgage. We moved to abbey national, but to exit the west brom we had to pay around £3000 because there was a % penalty(cant remember exact figure was)of the outstanding borrowing value, this was for the entire period of the loan(25 years). Being an endownment mortgage this meant we were tied in for 25 years unless we paid this extortionate fee. As i have said this was a long time ago and all but forgotten about by the wife but it still grates me today that we had to pay so much.... Should i just drop it and eternally forget about it or is there something i could do..

Thanks in Avance..

dunstonh

Should i just drop it and eternally forget about it or is there something i could do..

Mortgages were not regulated by the FSA in 1997 and there is no mis-sale there. The fee (known as an early repayment charge) would have been known about by you when you started the mortgage. It would also have been mentioned by the solicitor and been on your contract letter. It is a valid fee as it offsets the beneficial rate you got.

The adviser is not responsible for you wanting more money later on and the lender refusing to give it to you. You made the choice to borrow extra money. It wasnt forced upon you and therefore you accept the liability for that.

Retired_I.F.A.

Being an endownment mortgage this meant we were tied in for 25 years unless we paid this extortionate fee.

Actually you were tied in with regard to the redemption penalty but not because of it being an endowment linked mortgage as there was no penalty for switching to a repayment basis.

There might be a course of action you can take but it's unlikely and may not be worth bothering with unless you qualify for legal aid.
If, (and it's a pretty big If) you can show that at no time were you made aware of the redemption penalty and the West Brom put forward no evidence that you were informed of such then a judge could rule the penalty was outside of the contract and thus not valid. You'd need to see a solicitor in the first place though.

Practices like this went on for years but by the 90's lenders were pretty much up front with all their charges albeit in the smallprint somewhere. My first mortgage had a rate of 1 or maybe 2 % above the norm (a loaded rate because i'd just changed jobs and had gone commission only) and an early redemption penalty of 2% if redeemed in the first three years. Three years and a day later i remortgaged elsewhere and was shafted with a 1.5% redemption charge that was never put in black and white or mentioned verbally. Muggins here should have took the !!!!!!s to court but settled for giving them a load of verbal instead.

AMH999

Just wanted to report a success! Managed to help my father to reclaim £1,800 after he told me not to bother! I thought what harm can a letter do and sent it off for him. Mind you, it's not all good news as his mortgage came to an end last month and he has a £13,000 shortfall, with a £9,000 payout, so he is still £2,200 short and on a state pension only. At least he's £1,800 better off than he could have been though!

joesan

Was checking my parents post recently and found that they had an endowment policy. They speak very little english and having read this board alot ^^ I was thinking maybe they may have been mis sold the policy. The policy still has 6 years to run but they have actually paid of their mortgage a few years back. Can they still try to make a claim although the mortgage has been paid off?

Their statement states they will have a shortfall of 47k (initial aim was 65k). It also states that they have been paying in extra and their pension fund is worth 80k. Is the pension bit different to the lump sum cash bit? So if i was to claim anything it will be for the lump sum shortfall and nothing to do with the extra they paid in right?

Thanks you for helping I am clueless