Filling out mis-sold endowment forms

Turvey

Hi all, first post from new boy here! Been looking for advice on filling out above forms. What do you all think? Should you fill out the questionairre as sent out by the companies, or, as has been suggested by friends, that you dont fill them out at all and let the company that sold you the endowment sort it all out? Sorry, that looks and sounds a bit long-winded. Any advice will be gratefully recieved, if this has been asked before could someone point me in the right direction for an answer? Thanks in advance, Turvey

P.S Excellent site and forums by the way! Keep up the good work. :T

dunstonh

Whilst the company has sent the form to you for completion, they would also have requested the client file from their archives. If they cannot locate the client file, or whilst looking at it find it is not sufficient to support the sale they will automatically uphold the complaint without you needing to send that form in. If they find the file is of at least a fair standard, they will wait for that form to arrive.

Probably a good idea to give it a couple of weeks.

Turvey

Thanks for the advice. Will give it a couple of weeks as you say. I take it they will ask for them if they really need them? Thanks again.

defender_of_the_weak

Who is the complaint against?

Many companies are changing stance on non-return of forms and rejecting cases where they do not receive them back, others such as dunston detailed above will uphold if they have insufficient evidence from the time of the sale

Turvey

We have two! The Pearl and The Prudential. Look forward to your advice. Thank you.

Turvey

Update. Just received a letter from The Pearl stating that they cannot procced with the investigation until they get our questionnaire. They have given us 2 weeks to return the forms or they will " assume that you do not wish to continue with your complaint and we will close your file". I assume that this is common practice and is allowed? It seems a bit unfair as they should have all the info they want on my file, whilst i have to rely on memory Again, any feedback much appreiciated. Thanks for now.

dunstonh

I assume that this is common practice and is allowed?

yes it is.

It seems a bit unfair as they should have all the info they want on my file, whilst i have to rely on memory

You are complaing about it saying it was mis-sold. You clearly have enough memory to remember that.

Turvey

dunstonh wrote:

You are complaing about it saying it was mis-sold. You clearly have enough memory to remember that.

Thank you for your reply. I can remember being sold a policy, it is only recently that I realised that I MAY have been mis-sold a policy. My point is that I can't remember how much money was coming in and going out 12 years ago, and I thought that the company would hold all this on my file.

dunstonh

I know exactly what you are saying and looking at it from how they look at it. The minute you let on that you cannot remember certain things, then they could argue that you forgot the compliance bits.

This is why the documentation is important. Also, the questions can be used to your benefit as much as theirs. Lets say you put down information that differs from theirs. This could indicate that the advisor didnt ask the questions required by their process and made the information up. If that wasnt filled in correctly, then its hard to prove that the other bits were done correctly as well and that works in your favour.

You will say one thing, their advisor will say another, then there is what really happened and then it is how that is interpreted. Who do you believe? This is why documentation is so important.

EdInvestor

Just fill in what you can remember and return it.

Check out https://www.endowmentaction.co.uk site about the grounds for making a complaint so you know the form.

Many companies have destroyed all their files and are fishing for information with these questionaires.

So just give them the basics.

It's up to them to prove the sale was correct: you don't have to prove it was wrong.

mike_the_bike_2

HOLD ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go very careful what you put on the form...it is designed to catch you out

...Go to the Ombudsman site and download their endowment questionnaire form (it is the one you will have to fill in if you refer the matter to them in the event of you complaint being rejected)

Cross reference the questions on that to the ones on the form sent to you by the bank/life companies and answer those questions as honestly etc as you can

The remaining questions on the life company/bank questionnaire simply strike through and put NOT RELEVANT

I followed this on my two complaints for miselling and won my cases..Good luck

..This advice was supplied to you without asking for 33% of your compensation payment