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Mis-sold Life Insurance?
Fan100
Posts: 9 Forumite
in Credit cards
9 years ago when we were getting married &expecting our child, we visited a financial advisor to discuss pensions, lifeand critical illness insurance. I wasquite clear with the advisor about what I wanted (whole of life & CI coverto value of mortgage of £150K, not index linked/ some element of saving).
My husband is an artistwith inconsistent/ usually low earnings. The same advisor tried to sell him apolicy for £250K which he couldn’t afford. His selling point was that in theevent of his death, the mortgage would be covered and his family would have somemoney. The financial advisor used thepremature death of my husband’s motheras an example, in that once she was diagnosed with cancer, she died reallyquickly and did my husband want to leave his family in thesame position.
My husband had less experiencewith finances so I asked the financial advisor to set the policy value to be £150k,ending at usual retirement age, stating our mainconcern low premium and setting the premiums now as it ischeaper to buy when under 40 yr old. Thepolicy was set up and sent to my husband’s studio (I never got to see thepaperwork) and the DD set up with his bank.
As we approach the 10 yranniversary of the policy its transpired the policy value is now£260K, the premiums have been going up slowly over time (which is clearlynot what we asked for) but more worryingly, the life and CI policy was only fora term of 10 years! This is nowhere near his retirement age. When we’ve askedthe provider for it to be renewed, the premiums are sky high as opposed to minewhere the premiums have not really changed.
The facts at the timewere: we were about to be married, were expecting our baby, taken on25yr term mortgage of £150k (and have it
If my husband had onlywanted a 10 yr policy, this could have been brought very cheaply.
is the onus on myhusband for not checking the paperwork or was he miss-sold? I was there, Iknow what was discussed – the policy my husband got is not what we both askedfor.
any suggestions?
My husband is an artistwith inconsistent/ usually low earnings. The same advisor tried to sell him apolicy for £250K which he couldn’t afford. His selling point was that in theevent of his death, the mortgage would be covered and his family would have somemoney. The financial advisor used thepremature death of my husband’s motheras an example, in that once she was diagnosed with cancer, she died reallyquickly and did my husband want to leave his family in thesame position.
My husband had less experiencewith finances so I asked the financial advisor to set the policy value to be £150k,ending at usual retirement age, stating our mainconcern low premium and setting the premiums now as it ischeaper to buy when under 40 yr old. Thepolicy was set up and sent to my husband’s studio (I never got to see thepaperwork) and the DD set up with his bank.
As we approach the 10 yranniversary of the policy its transpired the policy value is now£260K, the premiums have been going up slowly over time (which is clearlynot what we asked for) but more worryingly, the life and CI policy was only fora term of 10 years! This is nowhere near his retirement age. When we’ve askedthe provider for it to be renewed, the premiums are sky high as opposed to minewhere the premiums have not really changed.
The facts at the timewere: we were about to be married, were expecting our baby, taken on25yr term mortgage of £150k (and have it
If my husband had onlywanted a 10 yr policy, this could have been brought very cheaply. is the onus on myhusband for not checking the paperwork or was he miss-sold? I was there, Iknow what was discussed – the policy my husband got is not what we both askedfor.
any suggestions?
0
Comments
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I wasquite clear with the advisor about what I wanted (whole of life & CI coverto value of mortgage of £150K, not index linked/ some element of saving).
My husband had less experiencewith finances so I asked the financial advisor to set the policy value to be £150k,ending at usual retirement age
You seem to be a bit unclear about what you wanted - was it whole of life or a fixed term (in this case to retirement).the premiums have been going up slowly over time
Did it not occur to you to question this when the first increase happened?The facts at the timewere: we were about to be married, were expecting our baby, taken on25yr term mortgage of £150k (and have it If my husband had onlywanted a 10 yr policy, this could have been brought very cheaply.
is the onus on myhusband for not checking the paperwork or was he miss-sold? I was there, Iknow what was discussed – the policy my husband got is not what we both askedfor.
You would have had a 14 day cooling off period after receiving the documentation to review it and cancel if necessary, but it appears that your husband chose not to let you see the documents so you didn't have the chance to review it.
Was your mortgage interest-only or repayment? And was this discussed with the adviser?
It definitely sounds like the adviser has sold you something (an index linked policy possibly) that did not meet your needs or requirements.
The first thing you need to do is work out whether the adviser was an IFA or a tied agent, as this will determine who you complain to. If they were tied then you complain to the company they were tied to and if they were an IFA then you complain to them directly. They should have a complaints procedure on their website or as a leaflet in their offices.
If you get nowhere with them having followed their complaints procedure then you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service - you need to do this within 6 months of the last response you get from the adviser's firm.0 -
The term "advisor" gets banded about a bit too much too so also worth checking via the paperwork if it was actually an advised sale or non-advised sale.0
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thanks for your reply!
I should have made it clear that the first para relates to the life plan I brought for myself - the rest relates to my husband's policy.- yes he filed it away without looking & didn't show me
- (sadly) our mortgage is interest only and we told the advisor
- the premiums went from my husbands bank acct so I didn't see it - he isn't as diligent as Martin Lewis (or me
)
thx again0 -
InsideInsurance wrote: »The term "advisor" gets banded about a bit too much too so also worth checking via the paperwork if it was actually an advised sale or non-advised sale.
I didn't know this - thx I will check 0 -
[*](sadly) our mortgage is interest only and we told the advisor
[/LIST]
You may have more than just a problem of mis-sold life insurance then. Do you have any means to pay off the mortgage at the end of the 25 (now 15) years?I will follow your advice - any suggestions for what to cover when complaining?
Stick to the facts about what your husband was sold (I assume your policy is OK, so ignore that it will just confuse the people handling the complaint). Tell them what your requirements were and how you have only now noticed that the policy you had doesn't meet your requirements at the time.
The only downside that I can see is that you appear (from what you have said here) to have told the adviser what you wanted (and even this doesn't seem to match your needs as it doesn't cover the repayment of your mortgage at the end of the term), so they may have treated it as a non-advised sale.
Assuming the sale was done on an advise basis then they should have all the paperwork detailing the information that the adviser got from you and the recommendations that he made.0 -
Why have you posted in the credit card section?0
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:embarasse whoops! I'm new to this - thanks for letting me know
PS don't suppose you know how I can correct this?
thx0
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