independant advisors

lestim

I recently approached a company to act on my behalf regarding a miss sold endowment. They said they could not follow up my case as I was sold the policy by an independant advisor, and that it is very difficult to prove that the endowment was miss sold. Is this correct, or should I try to get compensation?

defender_of_the_weak

Depends on the date of the advice and current status of the adviser, if they still exist.
Most claim companies 'cherry pick' the simplest and most profitable cases.

Can you provide any details and I may be able to advise

JCL

Don't use a claims company if you can avoid it.

Contact the provider - they should be able to provide with you with the current details for the IFA firm that the policy was sold through.

Colwn

I've just been looking at this problem today. My endowment is with Standard Life and I complained to them last summer but unfortunately they didn't sell me the policy, it was sold to me by a small IFA. That firm has apparently gone out of business - SLife gave me the name of the company (I'd long since forgotten about them) and also there IFA reference.

You need the IFA reference because if the company no longer exists - which given the liabilities those outfits must have for mis-selling wouldn't come as a great surprise - then your next step is to go for compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. BUT they will only look at policies sold after 28th August 1988 because that was when the legislation took effect.

Unfortunately I bought my policy in May of the same year so I've reached a dead end. But I'm really starting to dislike these con men with a vengance. Does anyone know if there's been any discussion about taking action against the companies who provided the products even if they didn't sell it to you directly? I would love to see the sales literature S Life were sending out to the IFA's in the late 80's, and I'll take a bet that it said all the things they were telling to the customers they were selling to direct, i.e. "Tell them it will definitely pay off their mortgage and they will have some money left over for an nice holiday." Which was exactly what I was told. Surely S Life must have some liability for a product which they devised and offered to the IFA's, especially if we could prove they were encouraging the IFA's to sell the product by promising that it would pay off the mortgage.

JCL

Nope. It was the adviser who told you what he told you and it was you who took that advice. The very nature of how much you were putting in and what you were looking to get meant you were reliant on investment performance and bonuses to make up the deficit in order to pay your mortgage off.

Literature is available on Standard Life's adviser website so you can access the sales aid from that time:

http://www.adviserzone.com/literature/endowment/archive.php

Don't think it'll say what you expect. Adviser has to take the responsibility and so do you to an extent. Have you tried to trace the IFA any further? May be that another company took on their books and liability. Worth doing some further detective work if you haven't done so already.

Colwn

JCL wrote:

Nope. It was the adviser who told you what he told you and it was you who took that advice. The very nature of how much you were putting in and what you were looking to get meant you were reliant on investment performance and bonuses to make up the deficit in order to pay your mortgage off.

Adviser has to take the responsibility and so do you to an extent. Have you tried to trace the IFA any further? May be that another company took on their books and liability. Worth doing some further detective work if you haven't done so already.

thanks for that. I'm aware of those issues but I still think my point has some merit, even if it doesn't stand up in law. If a salesman sells a new Volvo telling you that it's incredibly strong and built to the highest safety standards but when you crash it the car folds like paper, you don't just sue the car salesman. The IFA that sold me the product was a tiny little business in west london and everything they said about the endowment policy will have been based on what they were being told by the big boys. Standard Life is just using the IFA's as a barrier to stop us getting at their cash reserves. If this was the States there'd probably be a class action against them and the govt would have to come in with some sort of compensation scheme. I'm not a great fan of the US legal system as a rule but at the moment I feel pretty powerless.

JCL

Well have a look at the sales literature being used at the time and see what Standard Life was saying. If it includes the claims you think it does then use it to get compensation. I don't believe you will find what you're looking for though.

Colwn

Hi JCL - That's an interesting link, thanks for that. I did have a try but *curiously* I could only view the front page cover and not the sales text. It said there were six other pages but it wasn't possible to view them. Might be a software problem I suppose but I couldn't help daydreaming that if this was an 'Erin Brockovich' moment the music would jump a key to underline the significance. Do you work as an adviser then?

JCL

No, I've just dealt with some endowment issues in the past and found that site pretty useful.

Just tested the one for July 1988 and all the pages appear. Might need to update your Acrobat.