Endowment Mis-selling

Sammy25_2

We need advice in relation to a company who might chase up our 'mis-sold' endowment policy. The company is called 'Keypoint' Endowment Claims.

Does anyone have any knowledge of this company? Are they reputable? They charge 20% + VAT, but they do all the work for you.

Would it be feasible to chase the claim ourselves as our knowledge is lacking in this department and we are led to believe that time is running out to make a claim. Does anyone know of a cheaper way to pursue this?

Any help or advice would be most appreciated.

Sammy25

dunstonh

None of these companies are reputable.

They want 20% of a payout when all they do is send get the information and send a letter out. They then sit back and wait and at the end, take a chunk of the payout.

Use the template letter on the Which? website. Its free.

Compensationitis

DON'T use the Which? website template, it could prejudice your complaint. Do it yourself and tell the truth.

scottishlizzie

I've said this before somewhere so apologies if I'm repeating myself.

I have a legal and compliance background in insurance and currently work in the complaints handling department of a very large insurer. I am also in the process of helping a couple of people with their complaints (for a fee).

Where do I stand on these firms? You don't need any help to put in your initial complaint - whether or not you use them, the Which letter, or two lines penned by yourself confirming you believe the plan was missold because (e.g) the risks were not fully explained - it will make no difference to how the complaint is handled. Complaint Handlers get really hacked off actually when they get these third party firm letters because they just stuff everything in there that could possibly have been wrong regardless of whether it actually occurred or not. They come across as lazy and lacking in any kind of expertise.

I only handle the odd case and when I do it I do a fully personalised letter focussing in on the genuine issues for that particular case. I will not simply thro enough mud at the wall in the hope that some sticks. If the client says they were not really mis-sold but they just want to have a go for the compo then I will not take it on. I'm not lying for anybody.

Where these companies might have a use is in cases where the complaint is initially rejected by the insurer. It varies between companies but many will try it on and reject for spurious reasons. It is here that an experienced industry professional could help with an appeal to the company in the first instance or to the Ombudsman. You can do all this yourself too but I do believe that in certain cases you will benefit from professional advice. I am currently dealing with a case that has been rejected by Norwich Union for what I believe to be spurious reasons. My clients were sure that that was the end of the road and would not have gone further. I think differently.

I have helped other MSErs with free advice but I haven't got the time to do everyone's letters for them. Get the letter in and then if it gets rejected you can mail me and I'll see if I can help.

Good luck.

EdInvestor

scottishlizzie wrote:

Where these companies might have a use is in cases where the complaint is initially rejected by the insurer. It varies between companies but many will try it on and reject for spurious reasons. It is here that an experienced industry professional could help with an appeal to the company in the first instance or to the Ombudsman.

IMHO this is excellent advice

Complain first to the company in your own words, using the Which? site as a guide: https://www.endowmentaction.co.uk

Then, if the company rejects the complaint and you think they are trying it on and want some help, then it may be worth approaching a complaints handler.

About half the complaints that go to the companies are successful and a further 30-40% of complaints that go to the Ombo get through.

Note however that the compensation money payable is not designed to cover the shortfall, but rather to put you in the position you would have been in if you had been sold a repayment mortgage.

The shortfall will still need to be dealt with.

gobananas5

A few humble observations.

What happens when scots lizzie gets asked to help in a case against the company she is working for?

Not all compensation companies are the same and use standard letters, I have done some technical support work and process design for the company that was in the mail on sunday last week, libran compensation, and they turn down complaints if they think the clients are lying or they do not have a case, they only charge 10% for doing the work.

I don't undertsand why dunstoph thinks none of these companies is reputable. The guy that runs libran would have an opinion about that I'm sure. Isn't that like saying every IFA was out to rip you off rather than give best advice?

Compensationitis

Good to hear that a claims handler tells liars where to get off. Fact is that these people do still have a problem that can be resolved without telling porkies and stuffing every single complaint imaginable into a letter.

dunstonh

I don't undertsand why dunstoph thinks none of these companies is reputable. The guy that runs libran would have an opinion about that I'm sure. Isn't that like saying every IFA was out to rip you off rather than give best advice?

Its because all it takes is a simple, quick letter from the policyholder saying that they believe they were mis-sold and why.

Is that really worth 20% of any payout?

I have read many of these websites and they all give the impression that you will get more by using them, you will be more likely to win and that they work extra hard on your behalf. That just isnt the case.

A few of them have been caught telling people that they have rights to claim when they have answered the questions clearly showing that they were not missold. An MP even raised the issue of these companies in the House of Commons. These companies are also unregulated and accountable to no-one.

If it was a fixed fee of say £150-£250 then I wouldn't have an issue with it.

EdInvestor

dunstonh wrote:

If it was a fixed fee of say £150-£250 then I wouldn't have an issue with it.

That would represent about 10% of the average compensation payout, I think?Seems a lot more reasonable to me.

I agree with dunstonh that on the whole these people are not adding much expertise. We are not talking serious senior IFA work here or large amounts of time.

Compensationitis

On the whole I would agree that ambulance chasers are a waste of space but I have to admit (painfully) that many people cannot string as few sentences together and they can't remember what was said, they also find it hard to put their thought on paper.

Over the weekend I was helping a lady off another forum put a letter together, she sent me the standard rubbish off the Which? website so I told her to tell it in her own words, I then added my standard phrase.

Some people do need help but £100 should be enough to put them on the straight and narrow, some of these parasites charge 50% of the redress, what is the point of using a service like that?

Rik_S

I recently decided to get off my backside and do something about my endowment that was I felt was missold.

Using the `endowmentaction` letter as a guide I left in the bits that were appropriate and removed the bits that were not...simple.

Sent the letter then received a questionairre, that was straight forward.

About a month later I had a letter agreeing I had been missold & level of compensation has been offered.

This has taken two months in total. There was nothing complex, all very simple & straight forward.

I don`t see the problem using a guide to formulate your letter as long what you include is genuine.

I have no doubt that complaints departments see thousands of these letters and can spot the `templates` a mile off. However if you have a genuine complaint then it can not be ignored..`template` or not.