Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

strugstu

I have been reading the fantastic stories of compensation following endowment misselling, and i wondered if it was worth me checking out whether I am eligible.

1983 first 25 year endowment with Legal and General to cover mortgage of 14,400 sold through an advisor- recently recieved green letter -on target

1986 second endowment with legal and general for 5,600. Redeemed in in 1999.

1996 third endowment through Britannia Building Society. Redeemed in 1999.

I remember being told we would have thousands of pounds left over to enjoy holidays and even a new car!!

Is it worth persuing a claim or am i being greedy!!!

defender_of_the_weak

Evelyn

When was your case turned down, can you post some details about who the case was against and reason for rejection

Soph

Hi

Just a quick question. My Dad has an endowment that was taken out to repay their mortgage, which is underperforming and is projected not to achieve the expected maturity value.

My Mum and Dad however, have been mortgage free for some years now, having paid their mortgage off early.

Are they still within their rights to seek compensation for the mis-selling of the endowment policy, or, is it not possible, as their is no mortgage shortfall?

Many thanks

Soph

defender_of_the_weak

They can still claim but any calculation of loss, if their case is upheld, will be based on the date they paid off their mortgage. Interest will be added to this figure to bring it up to date. Whether they are still within the time to claim is a separate issue based on the letters they may have received warning them of possible shortfall in the maturity proceeds

DP_Gumby

dunstonh wrote:

A court action is your only possible outcome but if the adviser was part of a limited company and that company has ceased to trader then there is no legal entity to take to court.

If the policy was sold in 1989, then Court action will fail. The long stop limitation date is 15 years (Latent Damage Act), and that ran out in 2004.

As things stand therefore, court action is barred (unless there has been fraud by the advisor, or the person buying the policy is under a mental disability) for any policies sold before 1992- 15 years ago.

For policies where the 15 year limit has not expired, insofar as suing in Court is concerned, a claimant would be in the murky waters of 'date of knowledge' ie you need to bring a Court claim either within 6 years of being sold the policy, or, if later, 3 years from 'date of knowledge' that you had suffered loss.

But once 15 years has passed- end of the road for Court proceedings, subject to the two small exceptions mentioned above.

Re the limited company (and this is a pedantic point, so apols in advance) a company does not exist simply when it ceases trading, it merely assumes, usually, the status of not worth suing.

Whilst it remains on the Register of Companies, it still has a (usually worthless) legal status. Once it is finally dissolved and is removed from Companies Register, then it is totally gone (though there is a procedure for restoring a defunct company to the Register- OT- this has often used by e.g. asbestosis claimants, who regenerate the company, so they can claim against the old company's insurers)

HTH

tom_and_barbara_good

A quick question - our endowment with Standard Life (via the Halifax) is 23 years old with just 2 more years left to run. We were told that it would pay the mortgage off with a sum left over

I've looked at Martins article and he says that to make a complaint about mis-selling there is a time limit - quote - time is running out, you have either 6 years from when you bought the policy or three years from the date you realised that it might have been mis- sold -whichever is the longer

dunstonh

23 years ago means that you would be getting LAPR tax relief on your premiums making it much cheaper than a repayment mortgage. Even if you could claim (and chances are you cant given the year it was commenced and assuming it wasnt sold by standard life or Halifax themselves and not a local arrangement with a non staff adviser) there is a very good chance that there would be no redress as the monthly difference is taken into account.

If there was an average of £10pm difference, that would equate to £2760 over the years. If your potential shortfall is less than that (and do note that old Standard Life plan projections are flawed and tend to under project), then you are financially better off with the endowment.

tom_and_barbara_good

Thanks for that dunstonh, that's something to think about - we took out 2 smaller policies, again with Standard Life via the Halifax around 15 years ago - we are told by SL that all 3 may fall short of the target amount, does this alter the picture?

also, about this time limit, do we qualify on the 'three years from when we realised that we were mis-sold' as it was around 3 years ago when SL started to say that we would fall short

DP_Gumby

The time limits I referred to (6 years- 3 years from date of knowledge- 15 year longstop) relate to Court proceedings for any sort of breach of contract/ negligence by a professional advisor.

Not to be confused with the various FSA/FOS time limits. The problem is that after you have exhausted the Regulatory redress, and only have Court open to you, you may be too late for Court.

So, if I was mis-sold an endowment by a solicitor or accountant for example, on 3rd January 1992, or earlier, I would be out of time to bring a claim in Court, regardless of the FSA/FOS position.

Personally, I think a lot of endowment misselling claims firms have not cottoned on to this, and may themselves not be giving full and proper advice to claimants if they just confine themselves to negotiating direct with the Life companies.

Some are cottoning on, and I have seen the first few adverts by claims firms saying they won't take a case on if it was a solicitor/ accountant/ estate agent misselling claim.

Devjon

Leeds Permanent Building society
I was sold an Endowment by the manager of the local Leeds Permanent in 1990. I have received letters from Norwich Union sayng that there will be a shortfall. I have not pursued it as the Leeds is no longer in existence and hence no address to send a complaint letter.
Has anyone here faced a similar situation?
Thanks for any advice