Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

mayb_2

It sounds as if you are in the position of a lot of other people with this one. I think this depends on a lot of things but the basic one is whether your husband understood he was taking a risk on the mortgage not being repaid when he purchased his endowment. It doesn't sound likely that he did.

On the main part of this site you should be able to find a basic letter template to send to your endowment company. If you could persuade him to fill in and send one of these off it would be a good start. If he really doesn't want to handle this himself there are companies advertising all the time to do this for you. You would have to pay them of course and that would reduce the amount that you received, but better than doing nothing. Perhaps you could get some independent advice - even the citizens advice bureau - someone to point you in the right direction.

If you cannot make a claim for some reason you will need this advice even more to work out how to cover the possible shortfall. You might need to consider converting the whole mortgage outstanding to a repayment one. There are lots of decisions that do need to be taken to protect your future.

Has he had warning letters about the shortfall and was he advised of a cut off date for making a claim? If this is the case and the last date has already passed there will be nothing he can do about claiming redress unfortunately.

I do hope you can convince him to act now - time is important in these things because of the time bar rules. Best of luck.

don473

feisty1 wrote: »

I totally agree with dunstonh's comments, surely if you want to petition you would have done some research and presented yr facts correctly. This just shows a distinct lack of understanding, you'd be as well standing on my street corner with a placard.........To put yr name to this is embarrassing...........

What facts? The banks sold these policies with the promise of "paying off the mortgage and any surplus will be paid to you" FACT! I realise they are hiding behind the law of agency.

So don't sign, don't embarrass yourself. If everyone took your deadhead attitude and did nothing the banks will continue shafting us freely.

dunstonh

What facts? The banks sold these policies with the promise of "paying off the mortgage and any surplus will be paid to you" FACT! I realise they are hiding behind the law of agency.

Please can you provide evidence that the banks sold all of these? You wont be able to as they didnt. As has already been said, the majority came from the home service salesforces operated by the insurance companies. The banks got in on the action quite late and whilst they had a fair chunk it was just a significant minority.

So don't sign, don't embarrass yourself. If everyone took your deadhead attitude and did nothing the banks will continue shafting us freely.

Why dont you try and start a petition against the banks for the Iraq war or somethign else the banks have little or nothing to do with.

mayb_2

I cannot see any harm in starting or pursuing a petition to right a perceived wrong. If people don't agree with it they wont sign it and if they do they will. End of. The banks may not have been responsible for all of the missales that does not make them not guilty of any of them.

I have not any personal experience of banks selling endowments so cannot comment on that myself. However, I would have signed such a petition to bring some attention to the plight of those with failed endowment mortgages sold by insurance companies. As it was the government who set up the current system of overseeing the financial services industry and so condoning its response, I see little hope of a petition succeeding. However, that is never a reason for not trying and if at first you don't succeed............. Good Luck

grubby_watcher

thanks for your help mayb. I will get on to the hubby about it straight away! He will blooming listen to me this time!!!!
I think the least he can do, is to look into it, get all his paper work out and even fill in the dam forms himself....like the saying goes, if you don't ask, you don't get!!!
When he took out the policy, he did it through a financial advisor, and he was told he would get somewhere in the region of £100,000 -£150,000 back at the end of the 25 years. He was told that there's a slight risk, but it should definately make the £40,000 that it was meant to. Like they said, there's a risk in everything in life, nothings 100% quaranteed (except for death and taxes!!)
So i'll se how we get on.....many thanks for replying back to my note! You may have helped me push him into doing something he should have done a few years ago! Men! If we don't push 'em, they'll just brush everyhting under the dam carpet!!
Thanks again xx

dunstonh

I cannot see any harm in starting or pursuing a petition to right a perceived wrong. If people don't agree with it they wont sign it and if they do they will. End of. The banks may not have been responsible for all of the missales that does not make them not guilty of any of them.

The market share for them was only around 10% though. So, starting a compaign to get those responsible for say 10% to pay the other 90% as well isnt fair or right.

The petition itself hasnt got a hope in hell of succeeding. With most endowments now time barred and much smaller numbers in existence, it really is seen as something that is mostly over and done with.

mayb_2

It may well be over and done with from your perspective dunstonh, however the results of this whole fiasco will resound with many people well into retirement as they seek to pay off their mortgages.

Your cavalier attitude to this will not be acceptable to those who have been left holding mortgage debt when the cut off points are reached. Have you an answer as to what may happen to them when they are actually unable to pay off their mortgages? Perhaps they are not going to be customers of yours so you do not feel the need to consider the social cost of such problems in the future. Of course the banks will be responsible for the problems of their selling to the subprime market. They are just as unlikely to be held accountable for that too.

I did not see any sugestion that the banks were to pay for endowment mortgages arranged by all insurance companies. If the banks are responsible for 10% of these sales there is no reason not to hold them responsible for that 10% just because it is 'only' 10%. If it was only 1% they are still accountable. Nothing you have quoted from me here is addressed by your response.

dunstonh

It may well be over and done with from your perspective dunstonh

It never started from my point of view as I havent had a complaint to deal with. However, the FSCS have stated that it is largely over now.

Have you an answer as to what may happen to them when they are actually unable to pay off their mortgages?

Yes. They are stupid for leaving it that late. Sorry, but with the average shortfall less than £5000 and people typically being ware of this with this 10-15 years before its due, then they have plenty of time to do something about it. You have to feel sorry for those with larger amounts but switching to repayment as early as possible or at least arrange funding for the shortfall as soon as you can means that for most people it wont be a problem.

Burying your head in the sand and the complaining about it later doesnt do any good.

mayb_2

I have a funny feeling that you are being the Ostritch here dunstonh - it is understandable that IFA's and others cannot wait for this problem to go away for them - it is sort of embarassing to admit the failures of the finance industry as a whole, whether you feel part of that or not. They are not exactly the country's favourite people now.

Having acquired so little experience of it yourself I am not sure you are the best person to give an opinion on the 'type' of people you are refering to here.

I don't believe it is possible for you to truly think that suddenly the whole of the population knows all about finances and how to deal with them.

If they did there would be a lot of out of work advisors. If they did there would have been no subprime market to sell too. If you were right and most people knew exactly what they were doing, and bought endowments for that reason, there would never have been a problem in the first place. If we could all afford our own IFA we may not have made the mistakes of trusting those who advised us for 'free'. If we had understood then it would not all have happened. I could go on but I expect you get my drift.

We asked for advice when we first heard about the shortfall and were told to pay more into the endowment and we would be alright. So we did for a year and the next report showed we had lost even more money.

Let us not forget that bankers themselves (paying themselves incredible salaries) do not know everything about finances and how to deal with them - look around you. The government - do they know?

So let us not be too harsh on those of us who have been concentrating on making our livings on things we do know about, and trying to use our money in the best way we can by asking the 'right people' before making decisions on it.

Taking that attitude wont make this go away either dunstonh - the problem will have to be dealt with and funnily enough it is probably the taxpayer who will have to fund the solution at some point. Lots of old people with no house or pension and certainly no spending money- and that is without taking into account the financial doldrums we have been dropped into by the finance companies and banks alike. The number of retired people is growing all the time. We have yet to see the effect of lots of young people not geting pensions at all for themselves - can't afford it and don't trust it.

By the way the news is saying that the finance sector may have been a bit optimistic about how long this recession is going to last. Well I am obviously a lot cleverer than I thought then because I already knew that!!

dunstonh

Having acquired so little experience of it yourself I am not sure you are the best person to give an opinion on the 'type' of people you are refering to here.

Whilst personally I have not had any occurance of it. I do go to frequent compliance meetings which have had people working the FSA, FOS, complaints handlers and complaints departments present. They usually bring along a number of examples of bad and highlight trends. So, I would suggest my experience is actually better than most IFAs given what I have seen. Perhaps if you had seen some of the complaints presented your views would be different too.

If they did there would be a lot of out of work advisors.

There are. The industry has been shrinking for over a decade. Mostly the salesforces dealing with the bottom end of the market. Also, happens to be the area that was the worst for compliance historically.

If you were right and most people knew exactly what they were doing, and bought endowments for that reason, there would never have been a problem in the first place.

You are twisting what I am saying. At no point have I every suggested all.

If we could all afford our own IFA we may not have made the mistakes of trusting those who advised us for 'free'.

IFAs are usually cheaper. Even if you went on full commission basis rather than free. Its a misconception that IFAs cost more.

If you stand on a railway line and see a train coming you dont just stand there and wait to be knocked down. Anyone waiting for the endowment shortfall projection for 10 years away (or whatever) and doing nothing is being foolish.