paying twice for 7 years!!!

kingstreet

plonker777 wrote: »

i will be making an appointment to see the IFA on monday. i have just found all my copies, numbered and dated with specific instructions for from him. he thouroughly outlines exactly what the previous policly covered and what the new policy will cover. the benifits of moving to a new insurance provider and as instructed he will sort out all the relavent paper work and contact us in due time.
i have gone through it, as has my wife and it does not mention us having to cancel the exsisting policy.
so i don't know how it will outcome, but as far as i am hoping, he was paid nearly £500 with a monthly payment of £0.86 per month for the original. and £800 and a monthly payment of £1.17 for the new policy. Surely for that kind of money he would advise the cancelation??????????

There should be a suitability letter where the advisor confirms why he is recommending this cover, provider etc. There should be a paragraph in there which discusses the existing policy. Can you find it and post back, please?

david39

I bank online with two different banks and both of them have the facility to list current direct debit and standing order instructions.

Once every six months or so, I just check through these to make sure that there are none that I have forgotten to cancel or any that have appeared without my knowledge.

It takes just a few seconds to do it, but would have highlighted the OP's problem at an early stage when the money was more likely to be recoverable.

There are numerous threads on this forum regarding problems with uncancelled DDs, especially with automatic renewal of insurance policies, and this is a simple way to make sure the error does not continue indefinitely.

plonker777

Thanks all for your comments, i do appriciate them and if last night i offended anyone i do appologise i was a tad upset with myself probably.

a few things just need clearing up,
1. this is not a fraudulent claim.
2. i do appriciate its hard to understand how the **** i have missed it for so long, i dont and cant yet myself!
3. L&G would only have paid out if we had made a claim within 8 weeks of an illness are death occuring, so if something had happend at christmas say and we tried to claim now it would be void! they wouldnt have knocked on my door saying here you go!
4.with house and car insurance you have a yearly reminder and other companies bothering you so thats totaly different.
5. i dont expect him to pay me back his commision or fee's but surely he will be recieving some form of statement that outlines he is getting money from a policy beloning to me x2???
6. yes i have been lax with my banking but i work hard to pay all the bills as a lot of us all do, i have always been in good employment and currently hold 3 jobs, electrical engineer, retained fire figther and i have a small self employed buisness i run with my wife we set up a couple of years ago testing and inspecting electrical installations.

If this is totaly my mistake then ill take it on the chin and learn hard from it. i just cant get my head round the fact that there have been no statements or contact from either IFA or L&G, aviva send me one yearly and have telephoned on a number of occasions asking if i am happy with the policy.

plonker777

Kingstreet, i have the document you mentioned :-

Contract chosen and why
morgage protection

""I have recomended a decreasing term assurance plan which is suitable of protecting a repayment morgage. the other options were whole of life plans, discounted due to cost.

having searched the market place, via the computer programe, the exchange, for suitabl providers we established that friends provident,norwich union bright grey provided a plan, which matched your criteria. most providers do not offer gaurenteed rates for for critical illness cover, the above companies were the only ones offering gaurenteed rates. We could not increase your existing plan but obtained quotes for an extra £X??XX??X, the least expensive was adding an extra £17.89 to your exsisting plan. this was more expensive per month than if you opted to take full cover for the total amount borrowed of £XX?X?X?X??XXX. you therefore opted to take full cover with a new provider.""

it then goes into details about the critical illness, and what it covers.

plonker777

Kingstreet, there is no mention specifically of the exsisting policy, just wot i have said. but there is definately no mention of cancelling any policy??!!

kingstreet

In which case, I would specifically ask the advisor what you were expected to do with the existing policy.

I believe the documentation is deficient. I'd be expected to document (to compliance officer's satisfaction) that the existing policy was to be cancelled, but that should not be done until after the new policy had been accepted and put into force.

By not mentioning the existing policy, the advisor has left himself open to accusation.

All opinion of course.

In addition, the reasoning about companies not offering guaranteed critical illness rates is spurious. For as long as I can remember, most insurers offering critical illness cover have offered guaranteed and reviewable rates, side by side.

Off the top of my head, for at least the last fifteen years;-

Friends Provident/Axa/Friends Life
Scottish Provident
LV
Bright Grey
Aegon/Scot Eq
NU/Aviva
Legal & General

and many others have offered both.

plonker777

Kingstreet, i really do appriciate your time and coments, thankyou!!

My only worry is he has a "copy" of some letter i dont?
i am going to speak to the citezens advice bureu before speaking to the IFA so that i have more of a clue?
The guy who i dealt with years ago was a v, i was going to say very decent bloke. i suppose at the end of the day all salesmen are.
i put my trust in someone, and to be fare when a local building society last year got me in to "save me a fortune" on my morgage they informed me that under no circumstances should i give up my plan EVER! and who ever was advising me to keep it all these years new what he was talking about.
i am half a percent below BOE base rate for the life of my plan or until i change. he's always advised me to keep it and probably saved me a fortune in doing so.
still i need some answers

thanks again

dunstonh

There should be some mention of what to do with the existing plan. Even if it just a case of saying that the previous plan is to be cancelled. The lack of a sentence by the broker does mean that there is the possibility that the broker now becomes liable for paying out the money.

That said, it still isn't 100% odds on. It does say the reasons for taking out the new plan and not just doing the difference. The complaints handler may guess your IQ level and see if you would have had the common sense to do itself. That isnt meant rudely but IQ does come into it. I went to a meeting, which had an ex FOS member present, to aid us in things we should look out for when recording our advice, one example of a complaint was given where the advice looked fine on paper. We all said the complaint would have been rejected but we were told it was upheld because the person was a courier and their knowledge and understanding would likely be low. Whereas had the person been a professional occupation the complaint would have been rejected as that person would have been expected to know and understand. It created a big discussion and effectively it came down to whether the complaints handler felt the person had the IQ and common sense or not. So, whilst discussion about your IQ or common sense is difficult to cover and probably unpleasant if we tried to measure it in some way (so best avoided), it can come into play. Some on this thread think you lacked the common sense and others should not be liable for that. A complaints handler may agree but they may also decide that you are just not capable of knowing.

The advice itself doesnt look wrong. The product fits the need and the reason a new plan was taken out instead of an increment is documented. So, this is effectively a complaint about whether the broker considered your knowledge and understanding.

This is going to sound crude but looking at your grammar and spelling, I think you have a good chance (not a attack on you but the complaints letter that was sent in on that case I mentioned above was part of the reason that the complaints handler felt the "knowledge" was not very high. It too suffered poor spelling and grammar). For all I know you could be using a phone to type in your posts and that explains the typing mistakes. Or you could have been in a rush.I also feel a bit sorry for the broker as he appears to have done nothing wrong in the advice and he would be the one paying up. However, the counter argument is that he should have considered your inability to understand. And it is that which I feel any complaint will boil down to.

Some bits of this post were difficult to word without causing offence. No offence is intended. I don't know you and you have said nothing to offend me. I certainly don't want you to take offence. However, when you start talking IQ, common sense and ability to understand, it is difficult to word it in a way that may not cause offence. Please don't take this post as anything other than giving you some understanding of how a complaint may be viewed.

kingstreet

plonker777 wrote: »

Kingstreet, i really do appriciate your time and coments, thankyou!!

My only worry is he has a "copy" of some letter i dont?
i am going to speak to the citezens advice bureu before speaking to the IFA so that i have more of a clue?
The guy who i dealt with years ago was a v, i was going to say very decent bloke. i suppose at the end of the day all salesmen are.
i put my trust in someone, and to be fare when a local building society last year got me in to "save me a fortune" on my morgage they informed me that under no circumstances should i give up my plan EVER! and who ever was advising me to keep it all these years new what he was talking about.
i am half a percent below BOE base rate for the life of my plan or until i change. he's always advised me to keep it and probably saved me a fortune in doing so.
still i need some answers

thanks again

It's quite possible the advice and the product you have was perfectly suitable for the need for which it was intended. However, the purpose of the sales documentation is to put you in a position where you can look back on it in a year or two and understand the reasoning.

Omissions, or clumsy phraseology which confuses you can lead to situations like this, where no-one has taken control of an issue, so it has gone undetected for several years.

As I said, I would ask the advisor what his intentions were, based on what he has written, before you decide on further action.

plonker777

Dunstonh, no offence taken mate. i appreciate your comments and advice.

spelling, punctuation and grammar were never a strong point, along with a touch of dyslexia and fingers like sausages on a key board meant for a "maryanne" the words don't come out like they should!!

the fact i have electrical qualifications would suggest i am intelligent in certain areas, but when it comes to the understanding of the financial system, taxation, pensions and insurances i leave it to the experts. when they explain the details to me i tend to just agree as i don't fully understand. i just put my trust in them????????? foolish eh?!

i now totally understand that the IFA could not have stopped the direct debit and this would have needed to be done by myself, however, in they same way, when he set up my change of mortgage at the same time as insurance was changed i didn't have to cancel the payments to the original lender it was all handled by him. so this is why i think i am so bemused, he got us into the office to sign documents and weeks later all was done and dusted. i thought it was all done at the same time if you understand what i mean?

thanks