Mis-sold an insurance?

statusquo1

Hi, my mother took out a policy with refuge 10 years ago and was told it would give a healthy bonus on maturity. At no point was she told it was a life insurance policy (she thought it was a savings plan). She paid £12 per month for 10 years and just got her cheque for £1100. She has paid £1440 in!
When she phoned to query they said it was the customers responsibilty to check policy details but she never received a policy certificate on a paying book that changed to direct debit about 5 years ago when the company was taken over by Royal London. What do you think she should do, if anything. Thanks Colin.

regularsaver1

request policy details

so of the £12 a month - some was life cover, and some was in possibly invested in stock market - hence the different value in the return

did they send any statements?

statusquo1

She requested policy details but said everything was correct. She has never received statements. If anything had have happened to her we would never have known she had life cover as she didnt either.

dunstonh

It isnt a life assurance in a life assurance sense.

It is an investment in a life fund with a guaranteed sum assured to which bonuses are added to. This is the product the home service salesforces were selling for decades and most households had. In 1990, it was still the main regular contribution option.

At £12pm and no statements, it sounds like an industrial branch policy and fits the typical product that was sold at the time. IB policies had no legal requirement to send a statement. These are the old original penny policies collected at the door.

statusquo1

Thanks dunstonh, so does she have any come back on it in your opinion?

dunstonh

If she wanted a "savings plan" then that is what she got. It has an investment element to it which would have been classed as cautious back then (medium risk today). So, unless she is zero risk in nature, there are no grounds for complaint as poor returns are not something you can complain about.

The complaint angle would only really work if she was zero risk and can prove it (remembering that the documentation at the time would no doubt show cautious or medium risk).