Endowment Mis-selling - Don't give up!

elliehenny777

thanks for the advice I'll check all that out, good to have another independent bit of advice
Ellie

loveabargin

I have a possible maximum shortfall of £12000.00 on my Standard Life policy which was taken out in 1986. I have been told that it is too late for me to complain and other factors dont help such as I am not protected by the miss selling law and also the agent/ company that sold me the policy are no longer trading. Yet I read of so many people getting compensation that I feel I should do something but what grounds do I have apart from I was never advised that the policy may not pay off my mortgage. Any advice would be helpful.

Teak

I feel your frustration loveabargin at seeing others have success. My parents had a Friends Provident policy in 89 on the suggestion of the sales rep who was selling them an interest-only mortgage. The idea was to pay off the mortgage when it matured. Now it's £5000-8000 short and could get worse by 2011.

They didn't get a red letter or anything, just a standard typed policy update letter informing them of the expected payout and shortfall. They complained in 2001 when advice on complaining wasn't as good. It wasn't upheld, even by the Ombudsman. Basically no written evidence that the sales rep said or otherwise implied it would pay off the mortgage and that the growth figures quoted were never guaranteed and just for illustration. But you can bet the verbal sales pitch implied it. As for being sold a policy that matures into retirement, well supposedly that is OK since their expected retirement income can afford it.

Maybe they can afford it, but my parents feel they'd of not knowingly done that and it wasn't made clear..thus missold. That money was to enjoy their retirement not to pay a policy and the remaining mortgage it doesn't pay off, but still. So much for the retirement cruise. Of course now the shortfall is even more than when first complained, so they'll be financially worse off. But supposedly the Ombudsman’s original decisionis final, so cannot be reconsidered?

Adbru

Hi Folks,

Reading through the thread am I right in saying that if a claim is upheld then the compensation is paid by the IFA ??

We have two wp polices, one for 30k taken in 1987 (Friends prov) and another for 6k taken in 1991 (Standard Life).

They are now forecast at 17k and 3k

The larger was sold to us by a IFA who was a personal friend and I have not claimed due to this fact.

The IFA unfortunatley died last year, would any claim be handled by his estate or by the company which has taken over his business ??

Money may be important but it cant buy friendship..

Thanks for any replies

Adbru

dunstonh

Reading through the thread am I right in saying that if a claim is upheld then the compensation is paid by the IFA ??

Not exactly. It is paid by the company the IFA worked for. If he was self employed, then he was the company and therefore he pays it.

The IFA unfortunatley died last year, would any claim be handled by his estate or by the company which has taken over his business ??

Money may be important but it cant buy friendship..

If the company was a limited company and still trading or the company has been purchased (unlikely) then they pay the claim. It neither of these, then you can probably refer it to the FSCS.

PAPADAK

peterbaker wrote:

Yes the message is claim and dont give up for any reason. Whether you were sold your policy in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 or whenever it doesn't matter to see justice done.

I claimed for four sold in 1980 1982 1985 and 1987 which were supposed to pay off £75,000 by 2012. Actually the first three were ok but as the same company sold all four I gave them the benefit of all the policies together when they worked out the compensation. I received around £10,000 in compensation eventually because I was a bloody nuiscance and I was LOUD!

Unlike many of those current industry members who are standing like Canute trying to hold back the floods of claimants, I was around in the 80s when the salesmen, their managers, and the local building society managers at that time thought "endowment business" was the Golden Goose to lay their local profits for almost no effort on their part. A number of the more "successful" of them went on to become directors, and I have no doubt that some of those later directed that the endowment promises should be breached.

The FSA has issued renewed warnings this week to the endowment companies to deal properly with this fiasco.

If you had given up or havent claimed yet then get stuck in again.

Forget the distraction of those attempts by misguided industry members to rationalise what is a deserving claim and what is not deserving or what is somehow "time-barred". If you have a shortfall you deserve the compensation - - - - - period.

Thank you so much for an excellent reply. We have a claim outstanding with the A**ey. We put ours in 5 weeks ago. Opened the post this morning to find an offer of just short of 1k for a 48k mort taken out in 1987. A derisory offer indeed - they have admitted in their letter that the proper advice was not given. We of course wil be refecting this 1st offer .... any advice out there as to how we go from here .... going to sit down tonight and dissect the letter (we have 28 days to get out reply in)

Thank you in advance for any tips/advice.

dunstonh

Thank you so much for an excellent reply. We have a claim outstanding with the A**ey. We put ours in 5 weeks ago. Opened the post this morning to find an offer of just short of 1k for a 48k mort taken out in 1987. A derisory offer indeed - they have admitted in their letter that the proper advice was not given. We of course wil be refecting this 1st offer .... any advice out there as to how we go from here .... going to sit down tonight and dissect the letter (we have 28 days to get out reply in)

The endowment wasnt that bad if there is only £1000 short at this point.

Remember the calculation is to bring you in line with what you would have been had you been on a repayment mortgage. A good endowment would lead to a smaller payout, if any.

PAPADAK

dunstonh wrote:

The endowment wasnt that bad if there is only £1000 short at this point.

Remember the calculation is to bring you in line with what you would have been had you been on a repayment mortgage. A good endowment would lead to a smaller payout, if any.

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. Yes in essence you are correct. However the NU reckons we are on a 10-12k projected shortfall between now & maturity. Also 3 years ago we took action & did 75/25% split (25% being repayment) to attack the shortfall. So that has cost us extra too. We shall sit down & look at all the facts & figures and then reply.

This is an excellent forum/subject & useful for sharing experiences.

dunstonh

However the NU reckons we are on a 10-12k projected shortfall between now & maturity.

No they dont. NU projections show the projected value if 3,4 & 5% growth p.a. average is obtained. For all you know, the fund could be doing zero or it could be doing 8% a year. This is one of the biggest failings with these projections. For some endowments the 3,4&5% projections understate the likely return. In some cases they overstate. However, for some reason, the public generally sees them as what they are likely to get back and that sadly is incorrect.

PAPADAK

dunstonh wrote:

No they dont. NU projections show the projected value if 3,4 & 5% growth p.a. average is obtained. For all you know, the fund could be doing zero or it could be doing 8% a year. This is one of the biggest failings with these projections. For some endowments the 3,4&5% projections understate the likely return. In some cases they overstate. However, for some reason, the public generally sees them as what they are likely to get back and that sadly is incorrect.

OK,

thank you for that, can you offer any more interesting points please?