Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

Edward1968

Scotty, I would not expect anything wonderful from the FSCS, my claim through them has been going on for over 3 years now, story below which is very similar to another posted on the 'successes' discussion board...

When I contacted my endowment provider, Standard Life, telling them that the adviser who sold me the policy was no longer trading, they told me that they were not responsible and my claim should be taken up with the FS ombudsman.

The ombudsman, when I contacted them agreed I had a case for compensation, but tried to trace the adviser not the provider, then on not being able to trace the adviser referred me to the FSCS, not the provider. As stated by me in another posting the level of compensation subsequently calculated and offered by the FSCS was very low (£150) as they factored in something called DTA premiums, which significantly reduce the value of the compensation.

Did the ombudsman advise me incorrectly as to where my claim should be directed, should it have been with the insurer, should the insurer when I contacted them have accepted liability?? Most people on here have been compensated directly by the endowment policy provider, not having to deal with the FSCS, even where the policy was sold by an independant adviser who has subsequently ceased trading. The providers must not be factoring in DTA or their calculations I assume would also be significantly reduced?

I really am confused now and increasingly bemused as to what the FSCS are there to do. Their assessment of my claim must have cost thousands in administration, assessors, senior assessors and now assistant assessment manager all involved!!



Can anyone on here clarify what should have happened?

dunstonh

Just looking through this forum and can see that there is not much information on mis sold mortgages. I don't mean mis sold endowment mortgages but the actual mortgage.

Thats because there isnt many mis-sold mortgages and where there is the borrower is usually just as guilty as the lender or intermediary.

I have seen a few websites which mention the FSA compensation pot for this sort of thing and am interested in more info if anyone has any.

There is no such thing.

Websites such as missold-mortgages.co.uk and badlender.com seem to promise a lot.

Thats becuase they want to get money off you for something that has very little chance of success. The money to them is in what you pay up front.

Some of the information on those sites is wrong. For example, one says "This compensation is awarded through the FSA." The FSA do not handle consumer complaints and does not make any awards to consumers. It has no funding for such things either.

Another says "take advantage of the pot of money set aside by the Government to allow for compensation payouts take advantage of the pot of money set aside by the Government to allow for compensation payouts ". There is no pot of money from the Govt.

I'm afraid that is one of the common things that the dodgy claims companies say to make it sound like you have more chance of complaint success. However, its an old scam that has been round for years in other areas. The "pot of money" claim in particular is an old scam line.

Avoid these companies at all cost. They are scams and are misrepresenting the facts.

mayb_2

If you believe you were missold your actual mortgage you should complain to the company itself in the normal way. Providing the Company is regulated by the FSA and if you do not get an adequate response or feel your complaint has not been properly addressed you can contact the FSA who will write to the Company informing them they have had a complaint and setting a date by which this should be addressed. If the FSA believe that the Company has not acted correctly under the financial regulations they can take action but this does not include compensating you themselves.

Personaly I have had mixed experiences with the FSA as I have found them very unhelpful on one front and very helpful on another. Depends how they view your complaint I suppose.

Maya1212

I have been reading the threads, but don't find anything on endowment mis-selling that fits my situation.
I bought a flat in 1986 and was advised by the adviser to take out an endowment, because the payments would end up the same and at the end I would receive a bonus. He explained in detail what it would be, but didn't advise that the endowment may not be able to pay off the mortgage. I took out the endowment with Standard Life.
I sold the flat around 1996 and carried on paying the endowment which is due to finish in 15 months in order to have a lump sum for saving for our retirement (I work overseas with a charity). I did begin receiving letters more than 3 years ago from SL saying there is a shortfall of over £8,000.
I didn't follow up because I was in Africa and we didn't have internet etc to find things out.
My question is: am I at all eligible to make a claim based on these details above.

magpiecottage

I am afraid you have almost no chance of success because:

Standard Life have now "timebarred" virtually all of their endowments.

Unless it was sold by a representative of Standard Life, or a bank or building society, the Ombudsman won't look at it

If the adviser was independent he will be able to rely on Section 14B of the Limitation Act 1980 to defend any court action because you were advised more than 15 years ago.

The FSCS cannot assist with defective independent financial advice given before 28 August 1988.

So I am afraid you cannot claim.

On the other hand, although in terms of absolute numbers the figures are lower, inflation has also been considerably less than was anticipated in 1986 so the buying power of each pound you get will be greater.

LesleyJ62

I have just had a chat with my bank because my other half is worried that he may lose his job in the next few months. We have an endowment mortgage that has not performed very well. When the problems first came to light i was very poorly, i was in hospital having a tumour removed from my chest. As you can imagine my world had been turned upside down so the letters we recieved at the time seemed the least of our problems. A couple of years later i was again in hospital having major surgery (i am now an amputee) when another letter arrived that again seemed trivial in comparison to what i was going through. When things did settle down i looked at the letters we had recieved but at that point interest rates etc were starting to look a lot better so i thought we had pased the crises point and with about 15 yrs still to go i didn't really worry too much about how our endowmnet would end up. Too cut a long story short it is now very obvious that the endowment will definately not cover our mortgage let alone give us a lump sum as well(this is what our advisor at the start told us would be the case.)
Having spoken to the bank we will infact be a long way off the £50.000 we need as the policy is only worth £16.000 at the moment and only about 7yrs left before it matures. I cannot see things improving to the extent that it will be able to recover much at all. Is it still worth me trying to claim for a mis-sold policy (given i was in very poor health when we recieved the letters) or is it too late now. Our mortgage is with TSB.
Also, if my hubby does become un-employed would this endowment policy be seen as a form of savings by the benifits office.
Thanks for any advise given

mayb_2

As I understand it you received letters telling you that there was a problem with the mortgage but you have not said whether you received one saying you had until a certain date (cut off point) to claim a missale. If you have not received one of them then you have not been timed out of making a claim. In theory that is as companies appear able to say a letter was sent and not have to prove it. However, even if that is the case you did have extenuating circumstances at the time that may mean you can make the claim. Perhaps you should write to the company in the first instance claiming a missale. However, this has to be because you were not informed that you were taking a risk with this policy that your mortgage may not reach its target. It is not enough that the mortgage did not reach its target. It is very difficult to claim that you were promised a lump sum unless this was a pension endowment or something was put into writing regarding this at the time.

I don't think that you need to worry that the endowment would be seen as savings considering that apart from anything else, it wont even cover your mortgage. In fact you are in a position of having more debt because you have to find the money to pay off your mortgage at the end of term. You definately need to convert this mortgage to a repayment one asap and you can still make a claim even after doing that.

You need some financial advice and may find that the CAB can help you sort out your position in case your husband loses his job. Looking on the brighter side if your husband is made redundant would he be entitled to a lump sum? You need to consider whether to put this straight into his pension (or perhaps puting this into your mortgage) as a top up as I think it can be considered when assessing you for benefit - again CAB may be able to help you here or even a phone call to the benefits office themselves to get some advice/leaflets concerning all of this.

dunstonh

Is it still worth me trying to claim for a mis-sold policy (given i was in very poor health when we recieved the letters) or is it too late now.

You may be time barred. Over 3/4 of endowments are. The providers have the ability to overrule the time bar if there is sufficient reasons why you didnt complain previously. You have some good reasons and as long as they cover the 10 years that endowments have been reporting shortfalls, then there is a good reason why they would overrule. If your troubles only cover some of that period then it will be harder for you to persuade them.

Also, if my hubby does become un-employed would this endowment policy be seen as a form of savings by the benifits office.

No. Endowments are exempt from the means test.

ajm123

I recently contacted the FSA in relation to my Winterthur life policy, but had my claim rejected as Winterthur said that I failed to respond to letters (copies were provided) sent a few years ago, which I didnt receive. Has anyone else had a similar experience and how did they respond to this reply by the FSA?

Thanks

dunstonh

ajm123 wrote: »

I recently contacted the FSA in relation to my Winterthur life policy, but had my claim rejected as Winterthur said that I failed to respond to letters (copies were provided) sent a few years ago, which I didnt receive. Has anyone else had a similar experience and how did they respond to this reply by the FSA?

Thanks

The FSA dont handle consumer complaints. So, involving them is pointless.

Are you saying they are rejecting you under the time bar or are you saying you put in a complaint years ago but never followed it up?