Pre 1988 loser!

HATTERMAN

Hi everybody.
I am new to this website and to save me trawling through 3 years of discussion, if I summarise briefly my situation could somebody please let me know if anything has changed from the way I understood my dilemma 3 years sgo?

I took out an endowment in October 1987 sold to me by an IFA. This promised to pay £43,000 plus a lump sum in 25 years time. A few years ago I started receiving warning letters from Royal & Sun Alliance (now Phoenix) that the policy may pay out as little as £25,000 or less. I made vigorous enquiries at that time on what rights I had regarding mis-selling and Ombudsman, FSCS etc.I discovered to my horror that I had no rights as it was taken out pre-legislation.

My questions are : has anything changed with regard to pre-1988 rights and is it possible I may not even get back what I paid in (£20,500) when the policy matures in 2012?

Thanks for any assistance you can give !

ILW

Is the IFA still around?

HATTERMAN

He is still around but working for another company rather than for himself. The company just totally dismissed me when I made protestations to them !

ILW

Did he put in writing that there was a guaranteed amount as stated?

HATTERMAN

No, the word guaranteed was never mentioned or written. I was 'sold' by the amounts stated in his quotation, which had certain economic assumptions, that it would repay the £43k mortgage and return a surplus of £20k !! If I'm lucky I might get one third of that ! It's criminal !

ILW

Doubt if you have a leg to stand on. You were never told you would even get your money back. Stock market investments always did carry a level of risk. Sad but true.

dunstonh

Its pre-regulation so it complied with the rules that were in place at the time. i.e. none. That isnt going to change.

I was 'sold' by the amounts stated in his quotation, which had certain economic assumptions, that it would repay the £43k mortgage and return a surplus of £20k !! If I'm lucky I might get one third of that ! It's criminal !

You mean you were sold by the potential using rates of returns that had actually occurred in the recent past (at time of sale). Problem was those rates did not occur again in the future mainly as inflation was lower. On the upside, the changes in the economy did make you better off than had the old economy continued and the endowment hit surplus. Although the current recession could put a spanner in the works there too!