Advice please on taking mis-selling case the teh Ombudsman

Amanda65

We were sold an endowment policy on 30th April 1988 (one day after the Financial Services Act came into play) to pay off a £75k mortgage. AT the time my fiancee (now my husband) and I both had endowment policies which had been running for about a year and were told to cancel them as it would be better to buy a shiny new policy which would not only pay off our mortgage but also provide a lump sum to out any children we may have through Uni. We are now left with a £20k+ shortfall and I heard today that the company who now 'own' our policy, Windsor Life, who told me they had taken on the liability as the IFA who sold us the policy is no longer in business (theyare about the 3rd takeover from our original assurance company) that we can't claim as it's taken us too long to do so.

I am going to go to the financial ombudsman but do you think that my defence, which is that we thought as the company were no longer trading that there was nothing we could do and it was only late last year when we found out that we could claim despite this will be enough? I don't want to get caught out again. I feel that as non-financial people we were taken for a ride by the industry when sold the policy and don't want ignorance to be our downfall again. Any advice gratefully received.

Amanda

dunstonh

Your problem is that the scheme that applies here is the FSCS. That scheme only considers cases where the advice was provided after 28th August 1988.

Shortfall/projection letters are automatic. I have come across a number of people who havent received them and in most cases it was because the address was incorrect.

Amanda65

This is where I get a little confused. I originally contacted Windsor Life to get the full details of the IFA who sold us the policy to enable me to complete the FSCS forms and they told me that I was to pursue the claim through them and not the FSCS! Even the Financial Ombudsman was surprised that they had taken on liability.