Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

Viv

We have two endowments that I am beginning the process with. For our second endowment in 1987 we used an insurance services agent (we had used him for all insurances, car , pension, life etc for years)
We sent him the endowmentaction complaint letter on 21st Dec he has just replied to say that he must have used his usual practice and explained everything and 'how the life assurance contact worked.' Don't know what this means but he doesn't say he explained the risk to us and we know he didn't warn us of any risk otherwise we would not have done it. But he just says he has made a lot of effort to find our file, and that is appparent that we needed an offer very quickly(we were in no exceptional hurry) he got us a mortgage with the Leeds as he was an agent and that he is innocent but nothing else. So what happens next? He just says he wouldn't have done and we say we wouldn't have done it without his advice and certainly not if we were told there was any risk that it wouldn't cover the mortgage. He didn't send a copy of our file as requested or any other paperwork. We have a copy of pencil notes I made at the time in rough with 'quotation, and £12500 and £14000 becomes £40000 at the end'
The endowments are with Standard Life and they and our mortgage finishes in October this year. My second question- at the moment we are in line for the demutualising windfall (is that what it's called?) but will we still get it if policy is finished before it happens? Should we try to extend it for a year to make sure? Our first endowment was also with Standard Life in 1983 but it appears that Bradford and Bingley sold that to us when we borrowed an extra £2000. I have filled in the questionnaire for them and am waiting to hear. Can any of your experts help me but please use simple terms because this is all a bit like a different language. Thanks.

Mikeyorks

All 5 (all Legal & General) of my Endowments matured 2 years ago and paid off the Mortgage - just. But I had been expecting (and was initially promised {pro-rata}) an excess in the region of £10 - £15k, this later refined by the mid-point of forecasts provided by L&G a couple of years prior to maturity.

The 'shortfall' purely arose from the terminal bonuses being reduced from the average 96% in the last Bonus notice - to 20% at the point of payment. Which kind of removed the candles, the icing and a good few mouthfuls of the cake, at a stroke.

The first policy was provided via National & Provincial (N&P) in '78. And further policies were accumulated as we moved house / increased the Mtge through until '86. The advice at each of the 4 extra 'endowment' points - was to continue in that vein as it would provide a sizeable lump sum over and above the Mortgage. From memory, but I do have the papers to churn through, at least 2 of the additions were via National & Provincial - and the final 2 endowments were organised by Abbey National (who had merged with / taken over N & P),

Question - anyone aware of the terms of the N&P / Abbey get together. Was it a takeover or a merger. Do I simply write to Abbey in respect of the entity, as clearly I can't go to the FSA because of the 1988 time constraint?

Thanks

silvercar

Why not ask L&G who sold you the policies. In my case they accepted responsibility for the selling of the policy because neither they nor I knew who had sold it (also pre-1988).

Mikeyorks

silvercar wrote:

Why not ask L&G who sold you the policies. In my case they accepted responsibility for the selling of the policy because neither they nor I knew who had sold it (also pre-1988).

Thank you for that. How has that approach worked for you (or is it still current)?

But it's made me think that L&G might be well placed to advise if Abbey took on these responsibilities when they absorbed N&P.

noviceratetart

What investment fund(s) are you in? Do they match risk scale 3?

If no, then you have a good claim against them. Tell us what they are if you want a judgement on it

* * * *
All I know is that it is a unitised With Profits Fund [Low Cost Homebuyer's Plan] which, according to them [AXA] 'was compatible with your recorded approach to ATR'. Having re-read their letter, they say that their range is 1 = cautious and 10 = speculative and we were in fact recorded as 2 to 3.

What do you think? Also, can you confirm exactly when the de-regulated period ended as we've had conflicting information.

Thanks for all your help - much appreciated.

dunstonh

noviceratetart wrote:

* * * *
All I know is that it is a unitised With Profits Fund [Low Cost Homebuyer's Plan] which, according to them [AXA] 'was compatible with your recorded approach to ATR'. Having re-read their letter, they say that their range is 1 = cautious and 10 = speculative and we were in fact recorded as 2 to 3.

What do you think? Also, can you confirm exactly when the de-regulated period ended as we've had conflicting information.

Thanks for all your help - much appreciated.

Thank fund would be risk rating 6 on our risk scale. Any with profits with MVR potential is 6, without MVR potential is 5. AXA has an MVR potential so the 6 is appropriate.

Indeed, I just logged onto AXAs website and I have pulled the risk chart they have for their current investments which they list with profits under balanced. Balanced would typically be risk 5 or 6. If you want a copy of that chart to argue your case back with them, PM me with your email address or send me an email request (my email address is on my board profile).

I recommend you fight your corner as risk 2-3 out of 10 cannot be anything other than cautious (or unsuitable for endowment).

Viv

Is nobody going to reply to my questions? Have I not done it correctly? or am I in the wrong section? Basically its my endowment salesman's word against mine what happens next? and what should I do about my Standard Life policy finishing this year with demutualisation coming up? Please see previous long winded question from yesterday. Thanks Viv

dunstonh

Viv, start your own thread. You will get responses then (copy and paste your post so you dont need to write it out again manually). These generic threads get really hard to follow with so many people responding to different things.

Anyone reading this and wanting to ask a question, do so in your own thread please. Its easier for all concerned.

Viv

I don't know how to!!

Viv

Its OK daughter has rescued me.