Endowment Mis-selling - Don't give up!

dunstonh

If we complain to an IFA we actually ask them to send the paperwork in support of any rejection and tell them in the complaint letter that we would rather they reject will full paperwork then send some load of pompous bluster with no evidence so we have to go to FOS (Some IFAs really truggle to get their heads round this one). Beyond that, if we think people have case we argue it

I dont know what the stats are regarding the number of directly regulated IFAs and network IFAs but if I was to get a complaint, I pass it on to my network. Regardless of what is typed in the letter I leave it with the network and PI company. No doubt employed IFAs (from salesforces linked to banks etc) also pass the complaint on and it wont be the IFA dealing with it. The only time an IFA is going to decide the outcome of a complaint at that stage is if they are directly regulated.

appleedan

Hi

I've spent the last hour reading as much of all the posts as I could. I don't know whether I've missed a similar situation to ours, but please bear with me if I have.

We were sold and endowment for a £17,050 mortgage in 1988. We wrote to the building society - YBS earlier this year and said we had been missold. After three weeks they wrote back in agreement offering approximately £1,600. What's the problem I can hear you say. Well, in 2001-2003 we overpaid our mortgage. Every time the mortgage amount fell, we kept it at the original rate. By our calculation we overpaid by approximately £500. Unfortunately this £500 overpayment has been taken into account, because our outstanding balance at the time we complained was over £500 less than original mortgage.

The building society say that they have taken this into account, but I don't see how they could have. We would have owed around the £17,000 mark if we hadn't consistently overpaid. I am intending to telephone the head office, querying how they have taken it into account, and then inform them that all our deposit accounts with them are going to be closed and transfer them to another building society. We have four at the moment, including children's in trust accounts.

Please could somebody help us, as we're confused and very angry.

FOSman

The way they should calculate compensation is to compare what you have done to what your situation would have been had you taken a repayment mortgage.

If you have made any lump sum payments, these will be taken into account as it was your choice. What happens, is when you made the payments, they will model the same payments on the repayment mortgage side of the calculation. In other words, they will assume that you would have done the same thing if you had a repayment mortgage.

If you had switched the entire mortgage over to repayment, then they will be capping liability to then.

It sounds like what they have done is fair, but if you are in doubt, refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I should note, you can only do this if you have not accepted the offer. If the FOS find that they have done the calculation correctly, then the firm will not be obliged to recalculate compensation.

Hope that helps.

appleedan

Thanks for the advice. The truth of it is, is that we would have not overpaid any amounts at that time, except that we had doubts about the endowment and the staff of the BS disagreed. Each time we asked about whether it was advisable to change to a repayment mortgage in case the endowment did not pay off the amount borrowed, the staff said they saw no reason why we should do that, and we would not be able to change our minds if we went ahead. We overpaid because we thought it better to pay the at same level and for the capital to come down lessening the shortfall at the end of the term.

Kerr_3

FOSman wrote:

If she has not received another red letter since the Nov 2000 and she complains, then she will be time barred. if she recieves another red letter tomorrow, then complains, she will have 6 more months so long as it is actually her second 'red' letter. The rules have become slightly more strict since June 04, but thats the gist of it. Hope that helps.

defender_of_the_weak wrote:

Kerr, who is the policy with? as not everyone time bars, who sold it to her and was the letter one containing the words high risk

Policy was/is Sun Life. It was sold to her by the Estate Agents FA. The two letters to date are Jan 2000 just giving information about shortfalls and a fact sheet. The second Nov 2000 gives info on her shortfall with the "Action Note" reading "We consider it is possible that your Plan may not payout enough. To repay the target amount at the end of the Plan term, it needs future investment growth to be towards the top end of the current projection rates set by the independant regulator. In view of this you may wish to think about taking action."

She has only recieved annual statments since then

defender_of_the_weak

If the 2000 letter only states 'consider it possible' this is not a red letter. Get the complaint to R & S A

FOSman

The 2000 letters must state that "THERE IS A HIGH RISK OF A SHORTFALL", and must show a shortfall at all three reprojection rates. If it doesn't, then it is not a red letter, and would therefore not start the 3 year clock.

FOSman

I think what they said to you is the reason why you have not been time barred. They allayed your fears and that is why you have not complained until now. Otherwise, they would have a very good case to time bar you.

Under FSA guidelines, they are entitled to include such lump sum payments. Nothing you can do on this one I'm afraid.

Boicey_2

I am in a similar situation as descibed in "PaulGeary"'s post. I have S.L. endowments from 1986 and 1994 which I have received notification of a projected shortfall (worse case) of £28K against borrowing of £57K. Like PaulGeary I am unaware of what if any Final bonuses will be due and need to know this before deciding if I should move to a repayment mortgage. Standard Life will not indicate a final bonus amount so how can I determine the real shortfall amount and take action?

dunstonh

Boicey wrote:

I am in a similar situation as descibed in "PaulGeary"'s post. I have S.L. endowments from 1986 and 1994 which I have received notification of a projected shortfall (worse case) of £28K against borrowing of £57K. Like PaulGeary I am unaware of what if any Final bonuses will be due and need to know this before deciding if I should move to a repayment mortgage.

Any IFA can obtain this information for you. Its just a case of signing a letter of authority for that IFA to have the information on the policy. This authority is sent to SL with a letter from the IFA. SL then transfer the servicing of that policy to that IFAs agency and that allows the IFA to obtain that information.

I find the process takes about 7-10 days. If you cant find an IFA locally to do it, I am happy to do this for you, as I have with a number of others on this board.