Pearl Endowment - things getting worse....

kazzer101

Posted a few days ago re my endowment...

Have received a new cashing in value from pearl. Offered £7611 last month and now after paying another £55.60in, the surrender value has increased by £29 to £7640. I am absolutley devistated and really angry. Pearl have sent out a complaint questionnaire, but this is to do with mis-selling not mis management. I could cry and really really angry that losing £26.60 a month. They will make an indipendant assesment after filling in the mis sold questionnaire, but really think they gonna fob me off. Have dug out the origional letters and theres one from 2001 that says they are investing it into a less risky fund, so why are we losing money like this???????

Really want to make an official complaint - should i go to an independant financial advisor or fsa direct. Been offered £9499 to sell with 1st 4 teps Leonards Simmonds Associates Limited. Does anyone have any dealings with them. Do they have a buyer waiting and is the process quite quick? Or will they keep me hanging round for months.

Any answers really really appreciated, I am really upset by all this.

Thanks in anticipation...................

Karen xxxxxxxxxxxx

dunstonh

Really want to make an official complaint - should i go to an independant financial advisor or fsa direct.

FSA do not handle complaints and will just forward it to Pearl to deal with. An IFA could put a complaint in but I dont see what you have to complain about. In that premium you paid, you are covering some of the guaranteed sum assured, life cover and costs.

Pearl are on their third owner in 3 years. Their current position has little to do with the current owners. AMP totally asset stripped Pearl and left them in a very weak position. Most of their plans are in the 5th of zero bonus and Pearl were never a big bonus payer to begin with. One of the biggest issues with Pearl is that most of their plans cannot levy an MVR and they have a fair range of of guaranteed minimum pensions and guaranteed annuity rates which puts a big liability on them for the future. At best returns will remain zero or very minimal.

Been offered £9499 to sell with 1st 4 teps Leonards Simmonds Associates Limited. Does anyone have any dealings with them. Do they have a buyer waiting and is the process quite quick? Or will they keep me hanging round for months.

Take that offer now. Although I fear that if you did take it to the next stage, the company will come back and say sorry we dont actually take Pearl endowments. This happens a lot with TEP companies where they give you an initial offer based on limited information but when they look at the detail, they withdraw that offer.

kazzer101

my complaint is that we were advised to keep the policy over the 10 years, which we have done, otherwise would be charges £1000 in penalties and administration if we surrendered earlier. As it stands, we are making a loss of £700, 5 years later (policy been going for 12 years now.) We would have surrendered in 2001 if we knew that we would not have at least had our money back!!

we should have invested in putting the money in our mattress - would have been safer!!lol

going to try and sell now

thanks for the help

karen xxxxxxxxxx

dunstonh

my complaint is that we were advised to keep the policy over the 10 years, which we have done, otherwise would be charges £1000 in penalties and administration if we surrendered earlier.

Pearl do not give advice. They ceased that 4 years ago. So who gave you the advice to keep the policy?

As it happens, it probably made good sense at the time to keep it until the 10th anniversary to avoid the surrender penalty of £1000. The choice for you to go to the 12th year was your choice. I would have had it out on the day after the 10th anniversary. You cannot complain to anyone about your decisions.

A complaint would be pointless. These would be the responses:
1 - if you did speak with a Pearl adviser when they still existed and they told you to keep it then they have done their job correctly. Tied agents are not allowed to recommend cancellation of existing products unless their employer tells them to.
2 - if you spoke with an IFA, then they can recommend cancellation but quite correctly told you to wait until the 10th anniversary to avoid a £1000 surrender.
3 - if you spoke with telephone serviceline then no advice is ever given on those. Just options. So you cannot complain about the advice when none given.
4 - you chose to wait until the 12th anniversary and not the 10th so you didnt follow advice (had it been given).

Making the plan paid up until the 10th anniversary may have been a better (would have been in hindsight) but it wouldnt have been possible to know that 100% back then.

kazzer101

totally our own fault with not sorting it out sooner. guess thats what happens when life changes (babies etc!!) as i guess with a lot of people financial things tend to be ignored until they cause a problem!! (ie not having enough money) The advice was given over the phone by pearl in 2001 when cashing in another endowment and our own fault for not dong anything about it sooner. well, now that its happened, we are looking the mortgage currently with britannia, and with advice gained from here plus with what we should get from pearl (or selling it fingers x'd) we will be £150 a month better off by going elsewhere.

To say its been an eye opener is an understatement!! This is a great site and want to thank you for the sound advise. (better than the pearl 12 years ago saying we will end up with over £5000 more than the origional 40000 endowment - and we didnt claim for mis-selling!)

thanks again
karen