Endowment coming to an end

thebigun

Hi All,

My endowment policy is maturing next year after 25 years and there looks like there will be a shortfall of about £6,000 on the predicted amount when I signed up.
I have never claimed for mis-selling even when the company sent a letter advising me of the potential shortfall. I believe that I may have even gone past the claim period.
Now I know that it is always worth a try, and I may take the site's advice and say that I didn't really understand until know what the shortfall would mean...which is true in a way...

Has anyone been in a similar position? Did you claim and what was the outcome?

Any advice would be appreciated?

holly_hobby

Unless, you received your first red letter (ie - provider provided you with first EMV predicting shortfall) within the last 3 yrs, OR there are extenuating circs why you have not complained within that timeframe - then "you are out of time" and have lost the right of complaint.

To that end, you need to ensure you have at least the 6k put by, or switch at least 6k (more if you can afford it) of your mge to a C&I basis to try and mitigate the impact of any shortfall at maturity/redmeption.

On the plus side, EMVs are estimates of growth using prescribed FSA figs, the actual performance of your policy may well exceed such figs, but then again, may not ... !

You should within 6 mths to maturity, be able to get a farily accurate maturity fig (if a WP policy), which will give you a better idea of what you are facing.

However, prudent advice would be to start making some provision now ... prepare for the worst .. hope for the best ... is always a good way to view such issues !

Hope this helps

Holly

thebigun

Thanks holly, that is really useful.
Yeah I had already moved what I thought would be a shortfall to C&I so hopefully won't be too bad.
Interestingly the company has changed hands a few times since I bought the endowment and the latest red warning letter (found today) from the current company was less than 3 years ago - so may try anyway? I'll let people know just in case they are interested.

holly_hobby

Any successful complaint, would result in compensation calculated only up to the point the policy was held as a mge repayment vehicle - so would be stopped when you switched to C&I (with the addition of interest upto the present). Apparently from that point, retaining and continuing to service the policy as a savings vehicle, despite being fully aware of the performance risk.

It is your FIRST red letter, not the most recent one that the clock starts ticking on.

Your statement, that your LATEST letter was recd within the last 3 yrs, tells me you are time bound (unless there are extenuating circs as to why you failed to lodge a complaint, when first made aware of the poss shortfall to target by the provider), otherwise there will be absolutly no merit or benefit in submitting a complaint which will be simply rejected on the above .... and which COULD NOT be upheld in any event for loss of expectation (ie performance related issues ).

Complaints are assessed on the SUITABILITY of the policy to the individuals financial circs and risk profile at the POS (unless in your case you have evidence of a written gte of target being provided by the ins co - which is most doubtful as it is not accurate).

Apart from being timebound, your complaint sounds very much like loss of expectation in any event - which as stated can not be compensated for in any circumstances.

I am involved in handling complaints for financial providers, so you can rely upon my comments - although I know they may be disappointing to you !

Hope this helps

Holly

thebigun

Hi Holly,

Thank you once again for your reply, very kind of you to provide further clarification. Will relegate this to the "lessons in life" folder now :-)

Kind regards