Financial advisor and cancelling my life insurance policy

Lauraine49

Can anyone help or advise?
I had been through a mortgage firm to arrange my mortgage for the last 3 years, I re-mortgaged last January and the advisor forgot to fill in the form to charge me a fee of £250. He rang and said because I was repeat business and had taken out the legal and general life cover that he would waiver the fee. I cancelled my policy with legal and general last week because I can save £30 a month else where. I got a phone call from him this morning saying he wants to re-quote me to take out legal and general again or else he will have to charge me the £250. Do I have to pay it? He was quite rude and said he had worked hard for us and bent the rules slightly to get us a good deal!!! Any advise would be greatly appreciated thanks
Lauraine

robnye

ignore him..... he would have got something back from legal and general for getting you to sign to the policy anyway

if he still insists on you paying, tell him to prove it in writing and that you will only converse with him in future via letter

as for him saying he 'bent the rules for you'... surely that implies he did something underhand or illegal.......

be strong and walk away

dunstonh

Legal and General again. Their sales reps do this a lot.

Unless you agreed to do it on fee basis and used the commission to offset the fee (which means the commission had to exactly match the fee agreed with any surplus used to reduce premiums or refund to you) then they have no leg to stand on.

L&G sales reps have a reputation for doing this. They abuse the commission and fee system in a non-compliant way which would never stand up in court and would not stand up in a complaint to the FOS.

The reason they cannot enforce it is :
1 - fees cannot equal commission. The fee has to be agreed in advance.
2 - You need to sign a fee agreement which states the fee and if commission system used to pay it, it should state the period you have to pay the difference.
3 - They have recevied some commission and whilst there would be a small clawback, they cannot claim an random amount from you. It can only be the difference between the agreed fee and what they have received in commission to date.

So, ask him for a copy of the fee agreement you signed. He wont have one as they never do. He will huff, puff and threaten court action but it will never come as the court will look for evidence that a fee was agreed and he wont have it.

On the small chance there is a fee agreement, then he cannot just claim £250. He can only claim the difference in the specified fee agreed minus what has been paid by the insurer.

If he starts getting nasty, then tell him you will put in a formal complaint and if necessary take it to the FOS. The FOS charge £450 (rising to £500 soon). Even if the complaint is not upheld, the adviser has to pay that £450. Plus, they have to record the complaint on their file to show the FSA on a compliance visit. The FSA wouldnt like what has been done so they are going to want to avoid it.

Dont give in, ask for the fee agreement and be strong. In future, dont use insurance company sales reps.

Lauraine49

Thanks for the advice, I will def ask for some correspondence in writing as I felt so uncomfortable talking to him on the phone and I will ask about the fee. Absolutely will never take insurance through anyone like that again!!! Thanks again makes me feel more confident for when he rings back. Wish me luck

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

dunstonh wrote: »

Legal and General again. Their sales reps do this a lot.

Unless you agreed to do it on fee basis and used the commission to offset the fee (which means the commission had to exactly match the fee agreed with any surplus used to reduce premiums or refund to you) then they have no leg to stand on.

L&G sales reps have a reputation for doing this. They abuse the commission and fee system in a non-compliant way which would never stand up in court and would not stand up in a complaint to the FOS.

The reason they cannot enforce it is :
1 - fees cannot equal commission. The fee has to be agreed in advance.
2 - You need to sign a fee agreement which states the fee and if commission system used to pay it, it should state the period you have to pay the difference.
3 - They have recevied some commission and whilst there would be a small clawback, they cannot claim an random amount from you. It can only be the difference between the agreed fee and what they have received in commission to date.

So, ask him for a copy of the fee agreement you signed. He wont have one as they never do. He will huff, puff and threaten court action but it will never come as the court will look for evidence that a fee was agreed and he wont have it.

On the small chance there is a fee agreement, then he cannot just claim £250. He can only claim the difference in the specified fee agreed minus what has been paid by the insurer.

If he starts getting nasty, then tell him you will put in a formal complaint and if necessary take it to the FOS. The FOS charge £450 (rising to £500 soon). Even if the complaint is not upheld, the adviser has to pay that £450. Plus, they have to record the complaint on their file to show the FSA on a compliance visit. The FSA wouldnt like what has been done so they are going to want to avoid it.

Dont give in, ask for the fee agreement and be strong. In future, dont use insurance company sales reps.

What if thsi isn't signed and then the guy turns up asking for his £250 fee which you pay in cash receive no receipt and didn't even know about your point number 2 ? I'm convinced mine ripped me off.

dunstonh

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK wrote: »

What if thsi isn't signed and then the guy turns up asking for his £250 fee which you pay in cash receive no receipt and didn't even know about your point number 2 ? I'm convinced mine ripped me off.

Put a formal complaint in stating that you feel that the rep has acted fraudulently. Use strong words like that but dont get nasty or rude. If the company doesnt agree then you escalate it to the Financial ombudsman.

Advisers are not allowed to handle cash unless they hold a specific authority to do so from the FSA. Most don't. Tied agents certainly dont. The exception is a fee which has to be recorded against your details and logged in the cash book of the firm. If the adviser has done that then that will prove you paid it. If the adviser hasnt done that then his employer will be wondering why you are saying he was paid an amount and he hasnt declared it. They will then investigate. Its possible they may not agree with you but the adviser will have to go through an investigation and that wont be fun and it will have to be something they declare on any future job applications in financial services.

The type of rip off merchants give the good ones a bad name. Put your complaint in please.