Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

km7_2

I took out a Sun Alliance endowment policy to pay off my mortgage, in 1986, on the advice of a broker tied to the Halifax, who my mortgage was with.

It was supposed to cover the £12,000 mortgage, and I am still paying £18 per month premiums, and am told its current surrender value is £5,400 and its maturity value is just over £6,000.

I did make a lot of queries in 2005, but felt fobbed off though I didn't approach the Halifax, I never thought to. Whoever was in the broker's office seemed to want nothing to do with it.

My main questions are, am I too late to get compensation for mis-selling? My other question is can I still make a claim for compensation for mis-selling after I have surrendered the policy?

The policy is due to mature in 2011, and I need the money and can't afford the premiums, sinking into debt, and I don't need it to cover a mortgage any more.

I have found that the advice not to surrender but to sell as a traded endowment policy doesn't work for me as I have been told many times that companies can't beat the surrender value on Sun Alliance policies, though nobody has said why, and wasted a lot of valuable time waiting for quotes from other companies who then say they don't want to buy.

dunstonh

My main questions are, am I too late to get compensation for mis-selling?

Possibly. If the sale was not by a Halifax employee (which was common with building societies in the 80s) then its pre regulation and you cant complain. If it was sold by a representative of Sun Alliance then you can complain but it will be measured on the rules in place in 1986 (none really).

You say it was a broker so that would suggest you cant complain.

My other question is can I still make a claim for compensation for mis-selling after I have surrendered the policy?

yes. Although if the complaint is upheld, the redress calculation would be based on the value the last time it was used against a mortgage.

I have found that the advice not to surrender but to sell as a traded endowment policy doesn't work for me as I have been told many times that companies can't beat the surrender value on Sun Alliance policies, though nobody has said why, and wasted a lot of valuable time waiting for quotes from other companies who then say they don't want to buy.

Its too close to maturity really for much interest. Is it unit linked or conventional with profits?

Shoose

Hi

The FSCS are in receipt of my compensation claim and have passed it onto Deloitte. They have sent me a letter asking me to confirm 'for calculation purposes' when I began cohabiting with my husband.

Does anyone know why this would have any bearing on the claim?

The endowment was taken out in 1991 well before I knew by future husband and was in my name only. I don't understand how living with someone years later could have any bearing on the advice I was given.

Does anyone know what calculations are used to arrive at the compensation amount?

thanks in advance for your help

Richard_A_P_Smith

Hello. I wonder if someone might be able to advise on our situation; it's not clear to us whether it "fits the bill".

An endowment policy was recommended and so taken out in 1992 to cover a 25000-ish mortgage on a flat. No real indication was given that it would do anything other than make a lump sum over the 25000 on pay-out. Flat was sold about 5 years ago but investments continued to the endowment to get a return on the amount already put in. Now around this point the letters started appearing with the "danger of shortfall" and of course since then they've got worse projections.

We had a 'phone call the other day from a company that does this reclaiming thing and I went through the above in the same sort of broad terms. I said we'd thought it was not "mis-sold" but he was pretty confident in saying that it was actually very likely, particularly because of the time of selling - the economic down-turn of the time should have meant the endowment should not have been recommended. At this point I paid a little bit of attention - they aren't going to bother with unlikely prospects, are they? So I read the main article here and, well, maybe not - so it isn't clear to us.

Seems to us that the endowment was probably mis-sold but we weren't aware that any sort of reclaiming was possible until quite recently - after this three years mentioned in the main article.

So, perhaps someone with more understanding might advise on the likelihood of any claim going anywhere. I suppose it's worth doing anyway - a "no" is no worse than doing nothing but what's the best tactic?

Many thanks in advance for any advice

Richard

johnhoque

I have a question as well, I have found out we had a Joint Mortgage Insurance policy with General Accident (now Aviva) which lapsed in 2001 due to one missed payment (as bank account was overdrawn), is this different from an endowment? thanks

dunstonh

johnhoque wrote: »

I have a question as well, I have found out we had a Joint Mortgage Insurance policy with General Accident (now Aviva) which lapsed in 2001 due to one missed payment (as bank account was overdrawn), is this different from an endowment? thanks

Endowments could only lapse in the early years. Once they obtained a value then non payment could only really result in them being made paid up. I suspect what you have found is a term assurance policy. Not an endowment assurance.

foggytown

I took out an endowment for my mortgage in 1999 with the Pearl Assurance through one of their agents. Later, I paid off the mortgage but retained the endowment as a retirement investment. A few years later I received a letter from Pearl advising of a projected shortfall to come in its maturity year (2017) but they did say that they were volunteering to nake up part of the shortfall (about 50%). Does their volunteer action make any difference to claiming?

dunstonh

Does their volunteer action make any difference to claiming?

Yes. If you put in a mis-sale complaint that is upheld then they will remove the promised shortfall amount.

moneytipper

Hi

A company called Hamilton-Reid (they have a website and are registered etc) contacted me regarding endowment misselling.

They said that they will guarantee the shortfall on our endowment, and then chase the projected bonus.

Their charge would be a fixed £395 and then 20% of whatever bonus they recovered over and above the shortfall.

Given out shortfall is over £10,000, this obviously sounds very attractive if true - ie almost £10k guaranteed, plus possible extra.

They said they chase the Gov for the shortfall and the lender for the bonus, and that due to recently changed legislation, there is no time limit on the claims.

Sounds far too good to be true, and I can see no other online info to support it, and my financial advisor hasn't heard of it!

Anyone any experience out there on this - it's their guarantee that seems different from all the others?

dunstonh

They said that they will guarantee the shortfall on our endowment, and then chase the projected bonus.

Thats a bit risky on their part. Over 3/4 of endowments cannot be complained about any more.

They said they chase the Gov for the shortfall and the lender for the bonus, and that due to recently changed legislation, there is no time limit on the claims.

I'm afraid that is complete BS.

1 - The Govt have no liability and dont get involved.
2 - The lender has no liability and doenst get involved
3 - There has been no change in legislation or rules regarding time limits on claims regarding endowments.

Strangely, the claims company dont saything that you have been told on their website. Although not really as its complete BS you have been told and no-one in their right minds is going to put lies in writing.

Sounds far too good to be true, and I can see no other online info to support it, and my financial advisor hasn't heard of it!

It is too good to be true. Ask them to put that in writing and then send it to the ministry of justice as a complaint about misrepresentation of facts in an attempt to fraudulently obtain funds from you.

If they dont put it in writing then you know its fraudulent. If they do, then either they are stupid or you are on to a winner as you get your shortfall paid and HR get the liability. However, I suspect they would close the company down long before then and go insolvent after running off with all the £395 fees and leaving nothing left to pay your shortfall (as the Govt wont pay it, nor will the lender)

I bet the genuine insurance brokers called Reid Hamilton are a bit peeved at this cowboy claims firm having a similar name.

edit: this claims company do not appear to be legitimate. There is no Hamilton Reid on the claims management register
http://www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/search.aspx?search=simple&business=hamilton&authID=&type=-1&sector=-1&county=-1&region=-1&status=-1

They also only become incorporated on 21/4/09. So, have only been trading a few months.
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/8bb8ba5a3167e318a05e66ba23faeea2/compdetails

My opinion is that they are dodgy as the claims are lies and the lack of MoJ authorisation means they are trading unlawfully and as they have only been going for a few months are probably short of money and are saying things like this to bring in some cash.