Surrendering Endowments

abandonded

The following is a copy of a complaints form that I filled in this morning and sent to the provider of one of my endowments: Although named in my complaint, I have omitted the company names here.

What Went Wrong:
Last Tuesday I decided to surrender 3 endowment policies. The first tranferred transferred the money to my account yesterday and that money is now with my building society. The cheque from the second is expected today and again the proceeds will go to the building society.
That leaves the third, but goodness knows when the proceeds will be received from yourselves. Last Tuesday, the agent I spoke to said that he would forward the forms. However on Friday, wondering if they could, like the first building society, transfer the money straight into my account, I phoned and was told that not only had the forms not been sent, but that I would have to write in to get them. I did but by the time I get the forms, fill them in, return them and wait for your cheque my Redemtion Date will have long gone.
The agent I spoke to on Friday stated that the other building society have their system and they have theirs and that there was no way that the the money could be transferred immediately to my bank account. My question is, why not?
Sincerely
Abandoned

How Can We Fix It:
Transfer the funds now into my account ie the one from which the monthly payments were taken, in order that I can settle my mortgage on October 31.


I may name the companies later, depending on the outcome of my complaint. Am I being unreasonable?

holly_hobby

Different organisations will have different processing mandates - one will not always mirror anothers.

The completion and signature to surrender forms is standard, unfortunately admin delays can and do happen, which it appears is the issue here with delayed forms.

If you suffer a financial consequence of the unnecessary delay, ie change to SV if a unit linked contract, or any admin penalty fees, or unnecessarily incurred mortgage interest, as a direct result of the providers adminstration delays resulting in redemption post 31 October 2011, I would say that you may be justified in requesting the refund of such a sum.

Hopefully, you shall have the forms to you, signed and returned by yourself with sufficient time for payment to have been cleared and forwarded to your mortgage lender by the specified date.

I would before returning the completed surrender forms, discuss the matter with a supervisor/manager in the policy processing team, and ensure that your returned forms (by special next day delivery for time issues) are made for their attention, recounting in your covering letter your telephone discussion, and the urgency for having the sv payment expediated due to the delay in surrender, occurring as a direct result of their actions (i.e failure to despatch sv forms where requested).

Hope this helps

Holly

abandonded

holly_hobby wrote: »

Different organisations will have different processing mandates................I know this Holly.

The completion and signature to surrender forms is standard...........not so Holly. The first company took immediate steps to transfer the funds to my account without surrender forms. The transfer took 4 working days!

Hope this helps

Holly

What really bugs me about this is that regarding another insurance policy I have with the same company, I recently got an e-mail from them saying that they pull out all the stops to make sure that their customers are entirely satisfied with the service and asking me to complete a questionnaire.
Re your other points Holly, I will not suffer finacial loss over this matter.

holly_hobby

I would say that the company whom allowed you to surrender, without evidence of signature or written authority to do so (which are part of standard security and validation checks) - is working outside of normal paramaters I have experienced - but I can only speak from my yrs within Financial Services.

Obviously the first provider processed your request without signed authority, which I have to say I find unusual, but may well be their standard processing procedure, either way this is not the issue as you were happy with the way this was administered.

Moving to the other points - if you do not suffer finanically as a consequence of the later papers, the best you could hope from from a complaint to the company, would be an ex-gratia distress and inconvenience payment from the provider - probably circa £50 - £100 if granted under the circumstances discussed, and if D&I can be clearly evidenced.

Hope this helps ...

Holly

abandonded

Thank you Holly. If as you say, obtaining a signature before payout is par for the course, I find it very strange that a large company like Standard Life, the company in question, should choose not to do so.
That said, I am not complaining, because I now have £10,250 less of an outstanding balance on my mortgage.:)

abandonded

As I mentioned previously, the first company, Standard Life, presumably incorporating the newest ideas and most up to date, ie state of the art, features, had the money in my account in 4 days. The second company, Prudential were also very efficient requiring only a single signature to release their cheque. That leaves the third company, Aviva. First they said that they would send the forms. Then say said that I would have to write in before the forms could be sent. Almost 2 weeks on and I have just received the 6-page forms to be filled in. And are they state of the art? No. Gobbldegook, with everyday phrases like Deed of Assignment, Act and Warrant in Sequestration, Individual Voluntary Arrangement and Deed Reassignment, State Of The Ark is a better description. It is no wonder that the agent on the telephone said that if I had difficulty in filling them in I should phone back and get help.

Once bitten..............

holly_hobby

Deed of Assignment )
Deed reassignment ) = policy benefits belonging to another party

IVA = formal debt arrangement

Warrant of Sequestration - a term used in Scottish Law in connection with bankruptcy orders.


All of the above, are in relation to ensuring that you have retained full legal authority/ownership to surrender the endowment. and to lawfully be entitled to recieve the benefits from the policy. i.e if any of the above have occurred, then you may not have retained full legal rights to the policy proceeds.

So if you are not subject to any of the above orders - you just tick the "no" or "not relevant" check box (or whatever method the document requests)

This is why I was so surprised as to how SL have adminstered this surrender, quite apart for POI issues.

Anyways, with regrads to your post today, hope this makes things a bit clearer for you.

Holly

abandonded

Thanks for the rapid reply Holly. I have just finished googling the definitions. However, given the SL and the Pru have both released the funds without posing similar questions, I still feel that Aviva have a case to answer. Will see what happens.

holly_hobby

With the delay in forms, small ground for a moan, with regards to the info reqd to satisfy their validity checks, I don't think there is any room for complaint there, as they are just ensuring that you have retained full ownership and entitlement to the policy benefits. (as if they paid to you when there was an order in place, they would in v hot water with the new owner or Trustee In Bankruptcy).

Most important thing is to get the forms singed and return, as to procrastinate over negligible points, will only delay receipt of your payment and be of little gain to you.

Hope this helps

Holly

abandonded

Hi Holly and thank you yet again for your reply. I have absolutely no intention of making a formal complaint to Aviva over this matter. I simply hope that they will, in view of the feedback given, look again not only at their procedures, but also at the lack of plain English in their documentation. If you can clearly explain the terms used, then so too, can they. Incidentally, my mortgage is now cleared.

holly_hobby

Well done for clearing your mortgage ... I can understand and empathise with your frustration, legal docs can sometimes be filled with legal phrases and statement, that mean little to the average person whom doesn't have much expereince in the area.

I am sure that they will review your feedback, and take on board your comments to produce docs using plain English guidelines, you never know you may even get a nice letter of thanks back !

Having said that, I will sign off and wish you well...

Holly