Report Endowment Misselling Compensation SUCCESSES

martincw

Provider: Lincoln
Compensation: £5,500

Rang Lincoln, they eventularly sent me forms to fill in. I sent them back and after a while got a response declining claims on 3 policies.

I then complained to the Financial Ombudsman, filled their forms in and they agreed with me, and awarded me £5,500, which Lincoln paid up.

Whatever you do, don't take 'NO' as answer from your provider. It is free to complain to the Ombudsman, and really doesn't take long to fill their forms in.
Once again thanks MSE :T

anandp

Martincw,

Did you buy your policy through a broker? or direct from Lincoln?

AP

tambour

dunstonh .
In your post of 15th May this year to mayb you advised not to surrender or sell NU or PRU W/P Endowments as there may be special bonuses coming. My Scotam / Pru policy matured last month and, although the total amount paid out at maturity was reasonable I am concerned about the lack of transparency in the role of the promised bonuses in the make up of the total as only the sum assured , the regular bonus and the final bonus were itemised. How would you have expected the Scotam promised bonuses to have been dealt with by the PRU and how should they have stated them in the Maturity Value Letter? Grateful for your comments.
Tambour

linden_2

Is it too late to do anything about this ?
I did write to all 3 companies I was with and they told me that they couldn't do anything and I needed to get back to the firms that originally sold to me . That was a long time ago and I don't know if they even exist .
All three endowments were due to mature after my retirement date . Would that qualify as misseling ?
I'd appreciate any advice .
Linden

titchieboy

I recently put in a complaint about my endowment being mis sold etc however was told I am too late for my complaint being investigated due to 'time barring' ... I was seemingly told of deadline date for complaining in last three yearly statements, but needless to say I never read that far in the standard letter since it was on last paragraph of a 6 page letter. Does anyone know if I am therefore totally up the creek ( loosing est' compensation of £4000!!) or is there any other advice for claiming? Is 'time barring' by the banks legal or just a convenient term used to put of claims? I am new to this forum and therefore would really appreciate any help or advice or relevant threads. My wife is MAD at me and told me I should have READ THE SMALL PRINT!! She is going to have to go back to work now to make ends meet and we have three wee kids all under 4! HELP!!!!

dunstonh

Does anyone know if I am therefore totally up the creek

Yes. Time bars are valid and you are notified a number of times so you cannot really complain about an unfair time bar.

loosing est' compensation of £4000

With unit linked and the better with profits plans returning to ontrack or surplus positions there is often no or very little redress payable now. Its only the really poor ones where you would expect a figure like that or where the target sum assured is very high.

Is 'time barring' by the banks legal or just a convenient term used to put of claims?

There is some debate on this but it is legal and endorsed by the regulator.

She is going to have to go back to work now to make ends meet and we have three wee kids all under 4! HELP!!!!

A lot of endowments are not off track or not off by much even if the projections suggest they are. A number of providers have used lower projection rates to get their endowments treated as a high risk of shortfall to get them time barred quicker. Projections are just example rates and these can understate the real returns the policy is making (the bad examples can also overstate the position as well).

You should get the position reviewed accurately and make a decision on what you should do going forward. You may end up pleasantly surprised, you may not but at least you will know what the real position is and what you need to do.

titchieboy

Not really what I wanted to hear! Thanks for your reply 'dunstonh'. Took Standard Life endowment policy out for £50,000 in 1995 at £70 a month. Was hoping for a juicy cheque like all my pals received (£9000 to £2500) to cash in and pay of ever increasing debts. Was up to eyes in nappies etc and kept putting claiming proceedure off until two weeks ago! In the same week as told 'too late' my Mobile phone provider told us that we would not be getting our 'Cash back' via redemption (its a long story!) which is me loosing out of £504 in total!! Has anyone got a sharp razor!!!
Did pay some of my morgage of three years ago thanks to an inheritance so when morgage ends will not have shortfall. I still have my health!

Friendly_2

Bank/Provider: Eagle Star/Zurich
Compensation: £1000


The story: I took out a small mortgage in 1994 via Bristol and West and opened an endowment mortgage with Eagle Star (now Zurich) to pay it off in 2019.

When I received my annual statement in 2003/4 for the first time it stated that I was at major risk of a shortfall. This was written in large red letters on my statement.

After thinking this through, three years ago I followed the template on this site and sent off a letter to Eagle Star stating the facts and asking them to forward any compensation due to me as I had been mis-sold my endowment policy, believing that it was a good deal and I would make extra on top of paying off my mortgage.

In reply I received a letter and a form to complete from Eagle Star. I always keep all of my correspondence relating to my mortgage/finances so had all of the evidence they asked for, despite it being 10 years earlier. A few weeks after sending back the form I received a cheque for £1K.

It was all very easy and straightforward and I experienced no problems in getting this money other than writing a letter and filling in a form.

I still have the endowment running. A major shortfall is still predicted on my annual statement. I did not re-invest the £1K into my endowment and considered closing the endowment completely but as it is a low amount and as it includes life insurance for me I have kept it running as a form of savings. As I have moved house and increased my mortgage using another mortgage vehicle I am not too worried about the shortfall, although, of course, I would prefer not to have one at all! Also there is still time for the stock market to recover and I might make a profit by 2019. Fingers crossed!

luv_my_brass

It's some years ago now that I first heard about the mis-selling of Endowment Policies, as I had one, I thought I would see if this had been the case with my policy. To be honest, I was going in blind and did not have the benefit of the advice on this excellent site. I had two small endowments, which I'd taken out to enable me to update the house I had bought for cash, one for £6000, the other for £3000.
It took six months of bitter wrangling, where I was even insulted! I'm a battler, and they did not get the better of me, luckily, I'm a real squirrel, and never throw anything away, so was able to back up my claim with paper work they probably hoped I'd disposed of. I'm still wondering if I got a good deal at the end of it all. I was given all my contributions back on the £3000 plus enough compensation to allow me to pay off the £3000. Which meant I had got the work on my house done for free, didn't it?
On the £6000, they agreed to freeze my monthly payments until the end of the policy - I just pay a few £s per month on the life insurance policy which ends in 2010. I am being advised that the policy will fall short of the outstanding balance by about £1500. I did say at the time of accepting the compensation and their terms, that I still wanted the policy paid off (by them) at its termination, but had to reluctantly accept that there would be no 'lump sum' as promised. I didn't get any reply to that last letter, so am still wondering what the outcome will be.
Did I get a reasonable deal or not?

luv_my_brass

linden wrote: »

Is it too late to do anything about this ?
I did write to all 3 companies I was with and they told me that they couldn't do anything and I needed to get back to the firms that originally sold to me . That was a long time ago and I don't know if they even exist .
All three endowments were due to mature after my retirement date . Would that qualify as misseling ?
I'd appreciate any advice .
Linden

The mis-selling due to the policy maturing after retirement (and therefore working age) was the premise on which I based my claim, which I won. So hammer this home. The small print on my policy could only be read via a magnifying glass!
Good luck!