mis sold endowment mortgate

tjastaple

We took ouit an endowmwnt policy in November 1985 and now has a shortfall. We realise we were mis sold this policy but have been told there is nothing we can do as it was taken out before 1988. Does anyone know of anything we can do.

Annisele

Why do you think it was mis-sold?

Who sold it to you, have you complained to them, and what did they say?

If your complaint isn't out of time (which it probably is), and if your policy was sold by a bank/building society/large insurance company, then you might still be able to make a successful complaint.

tjastaple

Thank you for your reply.
We were told this policy would pay off our mortgage and also have a suplus enough to buy a new car or holiday of a lifetime.
This is a Legal & General Policy but we were sold it through an estate agent. We have complained to Legal & General but they say they can not help as it was taken out before 1988 and can not provide us with any information as there was limited paperwork in 1985. We would be satisfied with enough just to pay off our mortgage.

Annisele

The selling agent (in this case the estate agent) is responsible for the advice that it gave. L&G is just the product provider, and there's nothing wrong with the product itself. There was always a risk of shortfall, but if the selling agent didn't explain that it's not the product provider's fault.

If the estate agent is still in business, you could complain to them. However, you'd essentially be appealing to their better nature - you couldn't take this to court (advice given more than 15 years ago) and you couldn't take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (as it's exceptionally unlikely that an estate agent joined its Voluntary Jurisdiction scheme).

If the estate agent is no longer in business, there is nobody you can complain to. The compensation scheme only covers business sold from August 1988 onwards.

dunstonh

We were told this policy would pay off our mortgage and also have a suplus enough to buy a new car or holiday of a lifetime.

would or could? would is mis-sale. could is not. 25 years on and can you tell which it was?

However, its a mute point as its pre-regulation so a) any complaint would be based on the rules in place at the time (which were virtually none) and b) its sold by a firm that no longer exist (and before FSCS consider complaints)