Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

mark.from.oac

ff999 wrote:

I posted the above back in May, and did send my complaint on to the FOS.

They have upheld the rejection of my complaint, on the grounds that I was out of time in June 2003.

How can anyone be subject to a time limit without actually being told that the clock has started ticking?
I really really was waiting for the colour coded letter. I had no idea that the reprojection letters were the colour coded letters.

ACTUALLY .... you do have some options still open to you ..even if the toothless FOS and FSA are unwilling to do their job ...

Brunel Franklin, a claim management firm, has mounted a legal challenge to the FSA and FOS over what it says is an ‘inconsistent’ approach to time limits on complaints. Brunel Franklin claim the system is badly flawed and that the red letters were misleading and did not give policyholders all the facts. As such, a policyholder could not reasonably have expected to know that they were mis-sold the endowment or what to do about it.

Also in June a consumer called Vincent Cunningham won a landmark county court case against Friends Provident. During the case in Reigate, Surrey, the judge ruled that the red letter Vincent received from Friends Provident was not sufficient to start the time-bomb clock ticking.

The FSA, which instructed firms to write more explicit warning letters in 2004says it it is satisfied that now “firms are, on the whole, dealing with complaints properly. So the implicit logic is that the letters back then were unreasonbale!!!!

So heres an idea ... combine the goverments new simple and easy to use online small claims court (https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk) and a simple and cheap redress calculator like https://www.exasoft.biz/MFWebUser to sue the compnay directly through the courts ...

Money Claim Online is a simple, convenient and secure way of making a claim on the internet. With Money Claim Online you can keep an eye on the status of your Claim, Judgment and/or Warrant.

You will be asked to pay the fees to issue Claims and Warrants online by Debit or Credit Card.

Money Claim Online has been designed to be easy to use from a computer and is supported by a Customer Help Desk.






https://www.exasoft.biz/MFWebUser

mark.from.oac

flyer wrote:

3 years ago I put in a claim against the Halifax which they denied.

About 4 weeks ago, they wrote to me saying they would like to re consider their decision and asked me to fill in a questionnaire. I sent this back last week and, today, I have received a cheque for nearly £3k with a full explanation of how they arrived at that figure.

Now call me cynical if you wish, but why did they write to me and why have they sent me this money so quickly?

They say that if I cash the cheque I accept their offer in full and final settlement.

Any thoughts??

Quickly check the offer through https://www.exasoft.biz/MFWebUser/ ... I reckon you might be short ....

dunstonh

Interesting you say that as advisers are pushing more for a legal basis as the payouts would generally be lower, more cases would be rejected and it would be easier to time bar.

sadie11

Hi I'm new here and have read posts with interest.
We have 2 endownment policies the first was taken out in 1984 with CIS and the second with friends Provident in 1994
The first policy when taken out the rep came to our home and advised us to surrender our endownment we had with Scottish Provident as his would perform better we had only had the policy running for 1 year so took his advise. The policy at the moment doesn't have a shortfall but when we took out the policy we were told that we would be able to pay off our mortgage and have a substancial amount of surpless money, we now find out that although we probably have enough to pay off the mortgage the surlpess has dissappeared.

The second was taken out when we borrowed more on our mortgage for home improvements and this definately has a shortfall and will not meet the amount needed. The only trouble is we took out the policy with a broker who is no longer around.
Where do we go from here?
Do you think we have a claim?

Crazy_Saver

Hi there all you clever money experts.

I am in the process of claiming against my advisor re my mis-sold endowment and have had many hurdles.

First they time barred me but when I challenged them on the "High Risk Red Letter" dates, they admitted they were wrong and lifted the time bar.

They eventually wrote to me rejecting my claim on numerous grounds none of which they seem to be able to provide signed documentation to back up.

The only piece of "signed" evidence that they have sent me appears to have been tampered with. It is a photocopy of the advisors handwritten notes with a typed box at the bottom containing mine and my husband's signatures.
The signature box looks like it is a separate piece of paper laid over the top of the handwritten notes and then the whole thing photocopied to try and make it look like an official document! Coincidentally, this "just happens" to be the only piece of evidence with the words- "explained how mortgages work" and "happy to accept this risk"

Needless to say, neither my husband or myself recall the advisor explaining any of this to us!

Have any of you experienced anything like this before?

I have spoken to the Financial Ombudsman Service who have advised me to send them copies of every communication that I have as well as filling in both of their questionaires.

Sorry if this is a bit long winded but I really have never been involved with this type of claim before and I am eternally grateful for all the help and advice that I have received from this site so far.

Thanks for listening to my rambling....

Crazy saver

josey1964

Hello
I have been sent an offer from the Halifax for 2 endowments I took out, but I am very surprized by the low value so would like some help as what to do next.

Endowment 1

Norwich Union (Matures 03/2010) Taken out 09/1984 Target amount £17,500 New Target [4% - 5% - 6%]. £12,800 - £13,500 - £14,300

Offer from Halifax
Repayment basis 10371.17
Refund of premiums 801.72 with interest of 65.46
Surrender value 11610.00
Compensation -371.65

So no payout on this policy at all !!!

Endowment 2

Norwich Union (Matures 06/2010) Taken out 04/1988 Target amount £5000 New Target [4% - 5% - 6%]. £3,460 - £3,660 - £3,870
Offer from Halifax
Repayment basis 2791.07
Refund of premiums 325.50 with interest of 26.98
Surrender value 2961.00
Compensation 182.55

(We went with Option 1 for any of you who know the Halifax proceedure)

This seems very wrong to me, but I would like to know if I stand any chance of getting anything else if I go the the FSA or an independant advisor.

Josey

dunstonh

This seems very wrong to me, but I would like to know if I stand any chance of getting anything else if I go the the FSA or an independant advisor.

Not everyone gets redress. Endowment 1 gets tax relief and shows that you have been financially better off with endowment instead of repayment.

Endowment 2 doesnt get tax relief but the amounts are much smaller so the redress is small is as well.

Halifax use mortgage fundamentals to do their calculations which is what the FOS would want so unless you think the figures input are incorrect, there is no point taking it any further.

josey1964

Thank-you for your quick reply.
I can't understand why the smaller amount gives me compensation, whilst the larger amount gives me nothing at all.

dunstonh

The larger one has tax relief on the contributions. So, you have had over 20 years of premiums which are cheaper than what you would have paid on repayment mortgage. Tax relief was removed on new business not long after you took your first one out but those that already had tax relief, continued to get it.

As the second one didnt get the tax relief, your contribution was higher and that means the gap between endowment and repayment mortgage was not as great.

Overall, you have been significantly better off on an endowment mortgage. You had the tax relief on the 1st endowment. You also had full MIRAS before it was abolished. The latter is not taken into account. If it was, the savings from that would have wiped out the £182.55 as well.

An increasing number of endowment complaints are getting no redress paid or much smaller than a few years ago partly also due to the stockmarket recovery increasing the surrender values on the plans. This impacts on the better endowments more than it does on those invested in zombie funds (bad ones).

LWR

I have been persuing a mis-selling complaint for ~12 months and have come to an impass, can anyone help.

Briefly, i was sold a Standard Life endowment in 1993 by a FIMBRA affiliated financial advisory partnership (FinAd A). The partnership was dissolved in 1994with one of the partners setting up his own business (FinAd with the clients/books from the previous partnership.
I recieved a 'red' red alert letter in April 2005 and subsequently contacted the advisors re misselling.
The order of events,
1. Contact FinAd B as they recieve annual commission from standard life
2. Reply from FinAd B - contact FSA Departed Firms
3. Reply, contact FSCS
4. Went through FCSC process, unable to help, original partners of FinAd A still exist and able to meet commitments (?), contact them, address supplied
5. Contact FinAd A partner. Refutes claims, no evidence forwarded
6. Contact FOS. Out side there remit and as i understand it 'because FinAd A never affiliated itself to FSA after resigning from FIMBRA on the winding up of the partnership!' ( Why would they, their selling up!!!)

Three questions

Can this possibly be true, The FOS has no jurisdiction over an organisation that traded under the FIMBRA banner and never took up FSA affiliation?

Has anyone had a similar experience? and any advice

The FOS indicated that my only recourse was to take a the case to the civil courts... a somewhat scary proposition. I guess the first question would be the level of compensation if successful. Can anyone recommend a website that calculates the difference between endowment and repayment mortgages?

Thanks

LWR