Endowments - Should we complain?

mrs_scrooge

We have 3 red endowments from 1988 and 1995 and are wondering whether to make a misselling complaint (although we may be out of time for one).

They were sold to us via a broker and we don't have any written evidence of his advice just letters forwarding policy docs etc. We don't have any recollection of him assessing our attitude to risk or explaining the risk of shortfall etc although the possibility of shortfall is mentioned in the endowment companies' policy particulars (although the emphasis is more on the liklihood of paying off the mortgage and a possible surplus). We are not even sure we had a meeting with the adviser (the company were recommended in a journal).

At the time we believed endowment mortgages were the superior product if you could afford them. We also thought an endowment mortgage would be better for us as we had moved house frequently.

Is it worth making a complaint? I was thinking of using the 'Which' letters.

Also we were thinking of surrendering or selling the policies. I know you can still complain after surrendering but what about selling? Could we sell the policies whilst in the middle of complaining or should we wait?

Thanks

dunstonh

We are not even sure we had a meeting with the adviser

That is quite important. If you dont get advice, you cannot complain about advice given as there was none.

Mr_helpful

You bought 3 endowments through a Broker. You dont even know if you met him? You must have dealt with my old boss. Seriously If you cant remember even having a meeting with the adviser how can you remember what was said so how do you think you were mis sold

EdInvestor

mrs_scrooge wrote: »

Is it worth making a complaint? I was thinking of using the 'Which' letters.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.If they come back to you with a letter saying the deals were done on an 'execution only' basis, at least you know where you stand.

Could we sell the policies whilst in the middle of complaining

Yes.

mrs_scrooge

Thanks for the replies.

Obviously after nearly 20 years the memory is a bit vague. I have called them brokers, their letterhead says ....... Financial Planning Ltd and they were a member of FIMBRA. Does that shed any light? We approached them and they suggested suitable endowment policies and mortgage.

Until now we had thought we probably didn't have a case as the policy particulars did mention possible shortfall. However we have recently used an IFA and in giving us advice she went to great lengths to assess our attitude to risk and explain the risks attached to what she was proposing. We came away with a lot of paperwork. I then dug out everything from 1988 and1995 and found very little from the company that sold the policies to us. That set me wondering if the correct procedure had been followed.

We are not trying to pull a fast one but don't want to miss out if all it takes is a letter to be sure!!