Standard Life Endowment Help Again!!

Beverley

I agreed to sell my Standard Life Endowment to Surrenda-link. For several weeks now they've referred me to their website that said that my policy was sent off to SL on the 13 July and the turnaround time for SL was 16 working days.

I've kept checking back but now they've replaced that page with one that says that the turnaround time is now 6 weeks from when they received the final bit of documentation from me.

In the meantime Surrenda link have managed to lose my original policy - but then told me that it really doesn't matter as they can obtain a copy direct from standard life. They've also requested varoius bits of paperwork - all at different times. They've made errors regarding who has to sign to release the policy as they got confused about the fact the my ex husband was a life assured but no longer owned any of the policy as I've several forms to complete re that as well.

The reason for the delays has been their errors and now they seem to be keeping me waiting even longer.

They don't allow any calls to be put though to the relevant dept so can't ask what is going on.

I want to cut my losses and just get rid of the policy elsewhere - does anyone know if I can do this at this late stage? Or am I stuck with waiting even longer?

Beverley

mleonard79

Hi everyone,

Just to update - I've received an email from someone from IFG Teppco (one of the APMM companies.) They have offered £690 over the surrender value so that would be £12,034. That makes me feel even more like we should probably hang on to it for a bit longer as they would'nt offer nigh on £700 for something that's not going to make them at least a bit of money, would they?! What do you think of this Ed/Dunstonh? Thanks.

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

Hi Beverley,

God that sounds like a nightmare - don't really have any experience of these companies or your situation but just wanted to say good luck with it. You definitely have grounds for complaint, I would get on the phone and not leave the line until they put me through to the relevant people and also send a complaint letter recorded delivery to them. I'm sure some of the experts on here can give you good advice.

Regards

Michelle

dunstonh

I would say its worth a punt to wait until Feb to see what the bonus update is then.

EdInvestor

mleonard79 wrote:

Hi everyone,

Just to update - I've received an email from someone from IFG Teppco (one of the APMM companies.) They have offered £690 over the surrender value so that would be £12,034.

Hi Michelle

That's a 6.1% premium over the surrender value.

I would interpret that as meaning

a)They believe the Standard Life maturity projections are reasonably realistic

b) They think Standard is charging you a penalty/MVA of at least 6% for early surrender - I would supect more like 10%.

I don't see this quote is indicative of a major improvement in the future. It you want to take risks with your money, then you should be able to achieve much better performance than this very easily.

If you don't want to take risks, then you can get the same or better performance by putting the money in a decent high interest bank account and feeding it into an ISA each year.An even higher guaranteed return can be obtained by using the released cash to reduce the size of the mortgage.

I would only recommend keeping an endowment like this to someone who had developed serious health issues in the period since the policy commenced and was unable to replace the life cover at reasonable cost.

There is one thing you couldlook into - removing the money from the With profits fund and reinvesting it in other better performing funds which might stand a chance of reducing the shortfall - if this is allowed. It's the WP fund that is the main cause of the trouble.

Allegedly, Standard is offering some deals in this area, so perhaps you might inquire.They do have some quality funds, you could ask which ones would be available if you stayed on. Also ask what charges they would impose ( this latter very important.)

Few people go this route so there is little information about its potential.

I'm not optimistic, but you never know.Why not ask?

dunstonh

No option to switch funds on conventional with profits plans yet. The unitised with profits plans do have that option and yiu should investigate it on those plans. Indeed, I can now say that not one of my clients remains in the Standard Life WP fund where it is possible to move. The last one being switched earlier today.