Endowment - Friends Provident

jentiggy

i have a FD endowment which is due to mature in 2.5 years time, we have already received £6000 compensation towards the expected £18000 shortfall.
Looking through some old papers i have found the bonus notice from 1997. On the reverse is 'Mortgage News', and various statements are written.
The one i think is most important is this -
"Friends Provident mortgage endowments are designed so that even if the final bonus rates fell significantly, the mortgage would still be repaid. Which means that the only surprises you should expect from Friends Provident are pleasant ones"
Could this statement be used to cancel out my shortfall?

blossom30

Hi Jentiggy, I am interested in this also as my F.P. endowment matures 2011. I am by no means qualified to comment on this but I would be interested to know if there could be redress here in the light of this printed statement. The likelyhood is that in small print at the bottom of that document there will be a disclaimer. Thanks for pointing this out as I will go check out my documents from that year. cheers shrewdal

Annisele

I assume that you received the £6,000 compensation because you complained that you'd been unaware that the policy wasn't guaranteed to repay your mortgage? If that's the case, then I'm afraid the 1997 documents make no difference at all.

At the time you complained, you knew the policy wasn't guaranteed to pay your mortgage. The £6,000 was probably not paid 'towards' your shortfall - it would have been paid to put you in the position you would have been if you'd had a repayment mortgage from outset.

You could have chosen to surrender your endowment policy, pay the policy proceeds and the £6k off your mortgage, and then convert it to a repayment mortgage. You chose not to do that - that might well have been a sensible choice, but it was (presumably) a choice you made in the knowledge that your policy might mature with a shortfall. By deciding to carry on with the policy, you accepted the risk that it might fall short.

dunstonh

Could this statement be used to cancel out my shortfall?

No. The whole point of the redress you received was to allow you to come off an endowment mortgage and go onto a repayment without it costing you and without you being out of pocket.

If you choose to remain on endowment basis and take a chance after the redress has been paid then its your choice and no-one else's and you cannot complain about that. i.e. the only person you can complain to is yourself!