Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

sheilavw

Can anyone give any advice? Basically helping my sister and partner with their endowment. Took out 93 with promise of lump sum, usual scenario underperforming so a couple of years ago due to an inheritance cashed it in and changed to repayment, paying inheritance of 10k off it. I have written to Abbey on her behalf and she has rung me tonight. Received all the forms. She read some questions out. Obviously will have to estimate earnings from 1993 as unsure, okay with what told when bought etc. But unsure what to write on attitude to risk question. Any help from anyone been there will be gratefully received

dunstonh

But unsure what to write on attitude to risk question. Any help from anyone been there will be gratefully received

She should tell the truth. Anything else would be fraudulent.

She shouldnt guess when asking these questions. If she is unsure she should say so in case the company has evidence to say different. However, she shouldnt use the "cannot remember" too much as it can work against her because if she cannot remember that how is it she can remember what she was and wasnt told about promises of lump sum.

Sedmikraska

Hi i think we have been miss sold endowment polici in 1999. I would like to know if some one can help: Could we still make a claime under miss sold endowment? And if we procede with the claim isnt it ours word agains theirs? Thank you

dunstonh

i think we have been miss sold endowment polici in 1999.

A 1999 endowment sale? Thats late. It is also well after the compliance depts of most firms had tightened up as well.

Hope your evidence of mis-sale is strong.

Could we still make a claime under miss sold endowment?

When were you first notified of a high risk of shortfall and what date were you given to complain by?

And if we procede with the claim isnt it ours word agains theirs?

Only if the recorded documentation gives doubt or is missing. Quite common on 1980s and early 1990 cases but late 90s cases are generally much better documented and contain the risk warnings. Look at your documentation and just see how many risk warnings there are in the reason why letter.

treliac

Lady-Jane, we were sold a similar retirement plan, having been advised this would be the best way to pay our mortgage and have a lump sum left over to help in retirement. We were young and naive; although the name 'retirement plan' implied to us that it was some sort of savings plan. We had no idea nor were we given any information that there was any risk attached and would never have put ourselves in the position of possibly not being able to fully repay our mortgage. This would have literally terrified us.

We changed to repayments some years ago, having feared we wouldn't end up with what we had been told to expect. We have in the last year discovered that we might have a complaint as our mortgage was missold to us (didn't previously make the link to endowment misselling).

We made our complaint to the company that sold to us, using information from this site and from others found on the internet. Some of the compensation claims company websites offer useful info, though I wouldn't ask them to act for us due to unnecessary cost and, I don't think they do anything tailored to individuals' cases, just put in a standard template that you can do yourself.

The company made us a paltry offer that was completely miscalculated, e.g. we should have taken a 25 yr repayment mortgage and redress should have been calculated accordingly. The company calculated it as though we would have taken a repayment mortgage over the much longer term of their plan. Also, regulations make it only possible to have 25% of the plan's value as a lump sum to repay the mortgage. This was implemented after our plan started. No-one told us of the change.

Our complaint is now with the Financial Ombudsman Service. There are a number of issues involved in our case as we have come to realise. I feel that there must be many more people in a similar situation. I have read that there are comparatively few complaints about pension mortgages and can only imagine it's because people are still unaware of what a hopelessly poor position they are in. I hope that, with time passing, others
affected will not be time-barred before they realise their predicament, especially since there are no warning letters sent out in respect of these plans, it seems that providers may not even know when they are linked to mortgages.

So, I would say, go for it Lady-Jane and good luck. I imagine you would claim from the company that bought the first one out. Still having original and relevant documentation can only be helpful.

mayb_2

Sheilavw

The key questions on these things are all about your attitude to risk when the policy was sold. Did your sister know there was a risk that she may not get the money she needed at the end of the policy term. Was this explained to her at the point of sale.

treliac I wish you luck - we had a similar claim on what we considered to be a savings plan and got nowhere with it when it went to the Ombudsman. We did however, get more than was originally offered when we cashed this in - no explanation was given for this by the company. It broadly related to the system used to calculate mortgage redress and we probably would not have got more than that if we took it to court, something we could not afford to do. There does appear to be an anomaly here. as we had no warning letters or in fact any information about the performance of our plan. So we would only have found out at the end that it would not have paid back even the premiums we had paid in. However, the Ombudsman took no notice of that and other facts when considering our case.

Sites like this one at least alert people to the dangers they may be in with regards to endowments of any kind.

sheilavw

Thanks for replies. I spoke to my sister last night and she will be coming down tonight for me to help her. She wasnt told how the money would be invested, or that there was a risk of shortfall, but told there would be a lump sum at the end of the policy. The thing we are struggling with most is remembering their earnings in 1993. Can you estimate or put unsure. Should they not have this information on all their paperwork?

defender_of_the_weak

With regard to income either put down, 'please consult your records', 'dont recall' or 'affordability not a concern'.

I cannot recall the latest Abbey form and how they phrase the attitude to risk question. Probable best answer is to write 'I did not want to risk my house and mortgage' if this was the case

dunstonh

don't overdo the "unsure" or "cant remember". Too many of those and on cases where a balance of probability decision needs to be made they may question how you can remember some things so clearly but others not. (especially if its the things that work in your favour that you remember but not those that can work against you).

Lady-Jane_5

Thanks smigger & treliac for your comments.

Treliac, you said that "regulations make it only possible to have 25% of the plan's value as a lump sum to repay the mortgage" - is that with all types of pension mortgage plans or just the one you have? We certainly haven't been told this, so we'll have to look into all this a bit more, grrrrrrrrrrr.

These companies certainly took green, unexperienced, naive youngsters for a ride a few years ago. We also would have been terrified to think that our mortgage wouldn't be paid at the end of the term (in fact we still are!). At the time you think you're doing the best for yourself, saving for the future & covering the mortgage, & then now you find that your dropped in the deep end.

Even with all the paperwork etc that we've been sent over the years, we don't really understand it, just that in places the amounts seem to be much less than they were predicted when we first took out the plan.

We have a copy (an old photostat) of a newspaper cutting that we were given by the advisor when we were deciding to take out our policy. It is under the heading of 'Family Money-Go-Round' & is by Margaret Dibben, although we have no idea which paper it's from. One paragraph says, "The majority of unit linked contracts do not provide a guarantee that they can achieve the figure expected" & after that paragraph - in our advisor's handwriting - he wrote - A/D [Allied Dunbar] does! Hopefully this will help our case, as it was little things like this that helped us to make the decision to take out this policy.

It seems, that along with Endowments, these 'Personal Retirement Plans' or as it was explained to us when we were sold the plan, it was a 'Pension Morgage', need to be looked at in depth for miss selling too. Would wonderful Martin & his great team be able to help by looking into these too we wonder????

Has anyone else out there been sold one of these ''Personal Retirement Plans' or 'Pension Morgages'??

Keep your comments coming in. This site is soooooooooooooooo helpful.

Thank you
Lady-Jane & Hubby