Traded Endowment Policies (TEPS)

Pegleg2001

Has anyone experience of these. I have seen a seminar on paying school fees by a plan backed with TEPS. It sounded to good to be true, so probably is.

dunstonh

Is it a TEP fund or you actually taking on someone else's individual endowment?

Pegleg2001

Dunstonh - I believe they were offering a 'block' purchase of TEPS that would be assigned to the buyer. I presume they are chosen to mature at the end of ones childrens tenure at school.

It involved remortgaging to use up 'lazy' equity (their term) in your home and then block purchasing these TEPS structured around your own circumstances. They say they service the interest on the mortgage, pay the fees and upon maturity there is enough capital to pay off the original loan/mortgage.

dunstonh

There are a lot of good endowments that have been sold in addition to not so good ones. So the potential is there (potential does work both ways though )

If you are experienced enough to know which ones are good and which ones are not and have knowledge of the insurance companies and their financial strength, asset allocation and investment view you stand a better chance.

Ideally, you would be looking at the guaranteed sum assured and annual bonuses already paid. This is the minimum maturity value effectively. So, if that is valued at £20,000 and you buy it for £10,000 and remaining contributions over the term are £5000, then you make £5000. You then have the potential for a final bonus with more annual bonuses. These may or may not be paid depending on the company and it's financial state.