Endowment Compensation Misery

nomorekids

I have reached the final brick wall now.

I actually worked for Friends Provident when they forced me into buying an endowment who have a written letter of apology and admittance to misselling to me. At first they denied I was even staff and tried to make out some non existent broker sold me the policy. All lies.

The problem is they time barred me at a time in my life that I am not proud of but nevertheless depression is nothing to me ashamed of nowadays.

The ombudsman have been thoroughly unsympathic despite my doctor writing several letters to explain that I had post natal depression and in his opinion incapable of dealing with financial affairs.

I didn't even receive the warning letters they say I did so the clock started ticking from a date that I was unaware of.

Now even the ombudsman is coming down on the side of Friends Provident who are saying they have obligation to current policy holders blah blah blah and the ombudsman reckons, depression didn't prevent me from writing a letter. He obviously has no notion or experience of what it is like to suffer from depression.

I could write a book about this saga, the number of letters me and my GP have written to get absolutely nothing when the endowment is due to pay less than half what was promised.

Anyway any advice is very gratefully received.

wisewoman

Hi nomorekids.
Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time. Glad your GP is being as helpful as possible with your case. Post-natal depression is awful, so try to find as much help as you can...support groups, referrals, midwife/health visitor.
All the best...big hug.

dunstonh

I'm surprised you are not being refused as you were a staff member. Staff members usually get discounts on their own plans and have less protection under the FOS as these purchases are usually treated as execution only or direct to provider as no adviser is involved.

Still, the time bar is the key issue and hospitalisation is what they class as serious enough to hold you up for over 3 -5 years.

defender_of_the_weak

A few simple questions

Were the letters warning of shortfall correctly addressed.

What was the period of treatment for depression, how do the dates match with the period to complain.
It sounds like you have had a ruling from the 'jurisdiction team' who frequently adopt a hard line with a view to getting the required number of cases of their desk each week.You can always ask for a full ombudsman ruling, they won't like it but you have nothing to lose.

dunstonh

The other thing is, did you suffer with it for the 3-5 year period that you were being made aware of the potential shortfall?

nomorekids

Thanks for the support guys and the advice.

I was never hospitalised, good job as I had toddler and newborn to deal with. My medication list roughly corresponds with the time I should have complained but there are gaps when my GP persuaded me to come off the happy pills as I was pregnant.

I did have some sort of discount off the premiums for being staff but I had to have a Friends Provident endowment to get their mortgage which was subsidised also. There was no choice involved and no discussion other than to promise a nest egg over and above what would be required to repay the mortgage.

The point about the ‘jurisdiction team’ is interesting as I felt I was getting somewhere and suddenly the FOS adopted a very hard line. I am going to ask for a full ombudsman ruling. I might even complain about their handling of my case as it takes them 2 months to reply to my letters and yet they give me 2 weeks to gather required information, go and see GP again, get GP to write letter and reply back or ‘they will close my case’.

If all fails then its journalists for me as I really feel like embarrassing Friends Provident. I wasn’t the only member of staff to be forced into buying one of their policies. The commission went to team leaders and managers who all had agency accounts and pounced on the newbies as soon as they joined.

I am looking at over £20,000 shortfall

dunstonh

I did have some sort of discount off the premiums for being staff but I had to have a Friends Provident endowment to get their mortgage which was subsidised also. There was no choice involved and no discussion other than to promise a nest egg over and above what would be required to repay the mortgage.

Even if you could complain, this could be an issue as the endowment was discounted as well as the mortgage. So, you compare the discounted product against a non-discounted repayment mortgage (which would have been the alternative option at the time) then each monthly payment has been quite a bit cheaper than a repayment mortgage.

If all fails then its journalists for me as I really feel like embarrassing Friends Provident. I wasn’t the only member of staff to be forced into buying one of their policies. The commission went to team leaders and managers who all had agency accounts and pounced on the newbies as soon as they joined.

You can try it but they would also comment that you obviously went with the cheapest option available to you and benefited from discounts. No-one forced you to choose these. You could have paid the more expensive repayment mortgage if you wanted to.

I am looking at over £20,000 shortfall

With profits fund or unit linked? Many FP plans allow switches between funds. If you are in the with profits funds, then you should investigate switching to the unit linked funds and choosing a spread of those. Whilst they are not great funds, there are a couple of good ones in there and most offer better potential going forward then the with profits fund.