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Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

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  • littlereddevil
    littlereddevil Posts: 4,752 Forumite
    Anyone had any luck with the Pearl?
    travelover
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,765 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Anyone had any luck with the Pearl?

    In what respect?
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • TOBRUK
    TOBRUK Posts: 2,343 Forumite
    All Woolwich Life endowment complaints are handled by Barclays now, as these products were only ever sold by in house advisers and Barlays now own Woolwich.
    If you buy a company you also tend to buy the responsibility for the sales made by them over they years.

    Ring Barclays and ask the endowment mis-selling department and see if they have your complaint.

    Thank you for that dreamylittledream. Although I sent two letters to Woolwich, I have now sent the complaint letter to Barclays - the address which was on the top of the shortfall letter. I just hope now that they respond!
  • dunstonh wrote:
    In what respect?
    In claiming for missold endowment
    travelover
  • We win cases aginst Pearl regularly, but their forms are a nightmare, they also apply unjust practices to calculation of loss so if anyone has seen the value of their compensation reduced by savings made over the term they should take the matter to FOS and report them to the FSA
  • Dear MSEs

    Despite reading lots of different sites I cannot work out if I was mis-sold my endowment. I was sold it in June 1999. I was single, had no dependents, it was my first mortgage, I had no clue at all about financial things, and I seem to remember that the Financial Advisor did an attitude to risk assessment with me and I'm sure I came out quite adverse to risk at the time (still trying to see if I've got any documentation on this bit).

    I have a letter from the FA which I will partially quote below (missing bits indicated by .........):

    "....we agreed you should use the endowment route for the following reasons:

    1. a repayment mortage becomes progressively more expensive each time you move....
    2. There are a number of additions to the endowment which provide a secure basis for the repayment of the loan and indeed for the maintenance of the endowment investment, and these cannot be taken so cheaply using other methods of mortgage repayment.
    3. A well chosen endowment is usually an excellent investment which can be used for purposes other than mortgages and they offer the possiblity for your money to continually work for you and not for the benefit of a mortgage lender.
    4. Over time, the effective cost of your mortgage and endowment decreases for the following reasons:........(explanation about interests rates, inflation, and salaries).......

    The letter later says...."To chose the most appropriate provider for the endowment policies, I [the FA] have considered the charging structure available from the various providers, their past performance on the investments appropriate to your attitutes to risk, the strength of the company and the way the strucre of the compnay and its underlying assets may effect your investment. Of course, past performance is not necessarily a guide to future returns, but it is useful to discount those providers with consistently poor performance".........

    Because I have a letter which clearly says that the investment can go down as well as up I have always believed that I was not mis-sold, but there seems a lot of 'word -of-mouth' information that suggests that being sold an endowment that always comes with life assurance to a single person with no dependents may also constitute mis-selling. I also wondered if the wording of the items 1 - 4 above made it look like an endowment was a dead-cert while the bit about the investment going down/up was later on in the letter (a bit buried perhaps).

    I'm sorry this is a long posting, I am so terribly confused and just want to put this matter to rest for myself one way or the other. Do any MSEs have any thoughts or comments please?
    £2 coin savings = zero (I never get any £2 coins 'cos the rest of you are hogging them in your piggy banks!) :rotfl:
  • Your FA is either very talented or lying, he also seems to have bent the facts a tad.

    1. Repayment mortgages do not get more expensive each time you move
    2. What are they and can this cost be evidenced
    3. If it was so good to be continually invested, why did you complain
    4. This applies equally to both types of mortgage, and the arguments for repayment can be equally as strong as a way of buying your house.

    IMHO this sounds like a fairly standard fobbing off exercise, (I should know I've seen a few) ask him for all the original paperwork, take it to the Ombudsman
  • Sorry, forgot a bit

    Single and no need for life cover = No endowment needed as other methods of building capital could have been used assuming you were wiling to take a risk which it appears you were not.

    Which company did he recommend, what was the growth rate used to project the repayment amount.

    Endowment sold in 1999, he obviously failed to read any trade press as by then the alarm bells were going off all over the industry
  • Which company did he recommend, what was the growth rate used to project the repayment amount.

    The endowment was with Scottish Amicable who've been taken over by the Prudential - projected growth rate of 7%.

    Does this shed further light on anything??!! Many thanks for your comments DOTW.
    £2 coin savings = zero (I never get any £2 coins 'cos the rest of you are hogging them in your piggy banks!) :rotfl:
  • Not a bad company as dunston and others will testify, but still a risky course of action in 1999, the market was being to overheat and long term returns on endowments was already subject of concern. I still say take it to FOS as if you do not you will lose any right to an independent review, which still may or may ot find in your favour
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