Who do I complain to?

d87heaven

I have an standard life endowment sold to me through HPS (halifax property services) an appointed representative of standard life. To whom should I complain? I can't find HPS any more so who do I complain to, standard life?

EDIT: It should be HPS financial services not halifax property services.

brannyrhino_2

I would start with the
Head of Compliance at Halifax to start the ball rolling.

dreamylittledream

Appointed repesentative of Standard Life?

Complaint goes to Standard Life - writing to halifax will only slow the process down.

Standard Life have a model approach to endowment claims - I'd get onto them straight away as they are due to begin invoking timebars this month...

d87heaven

Thankyou kindly for the info.

rabialiones

i was sold standard life policy thru blundells estate agents/financial services.
do i write my initial letter to blundells or standard life?

owey

We had a standard life endowment through the Halifax and the halifax sorted it out, but at first they said you have to contact standard life which was wrong. You need to go to the person who sold you the endowment.

EdInvestor

If you don't know who sold you the endowment, ask the policy provider who it was, just ring them SL. They will say if you should complain directly to them, and they will tell you who is now responsible for receiving complaints if it isn't them.

They know this because unless you've told them not to, they will be paying the company a small amount of "trail commission" every month....

....if you decide to tell them not to pay this commission to whoever (mis) sold you the endowment, unfortunately they will not give it to you, they will keep it themselves.

However in the Standard Life case, since we the policyholders own the company, and will still do so after the DM as shareholders, then might as well cut these old advisors out the picture, and give a little boost to Standard's profits, right? It will go back to us eventually as policyholders or shareholders.

Every little helps

dreamylittledream

owey wrote:

We had a standard life endowment through the Halifax and the halifax sorted it out, but at first they said you have to contact standard life which was wrong. You need to go to the person who sold you the endowment.

Generally this is true but not always.

If a policy was sold by firm (such as Halifax) during a period where it was 'tied'' to a life company (this is what the statement appointed representative means) then the complaint is directed to the life company as they were responsible for the quality of the advice and compliance.

If the adviser/firm acted independantly the complaint should be directed to them

Ed Investors advice above is an excellent way of finding out who is responsible quickly

dunstonh

I will tweak Eds advice as you dont need to know current servicing agent. That person may not be responsible. You need to know the selling agent details. That is the person responsible. Whilst they could be the same, the servicing agent details may have changed over the years.

EdInvestor

The servicing agent should know who the selling agent was, if different.

dunstonh

EdInvestor wrote:

The servicing agent should know who the selling agent was, if different.

Not unless there was a direct link. I havent got a clue who sold any of the endowments that I am down as servicing adviser on.