Endowment Mis-selling - Don't give up!

dunstonh

Seseme have informed me it could take up to a year before I hear anything regarding my initial complaint of misselling.

Surely there should be some sort of time limit on these things, enforced by the gov.

Its fair that it can take up to a year. Its not so much the amount of work required but the volume. You so also have to allow for the advisor, who you say is no longer operating under that name, to have his say.

In effect we have been conned.

Well, that remains to be seen.

Keen_Saver

I was sold a Legal and General endowment policy by an independent broker in 1996, we told him we wanted a mortgage that would be easy to pay off in full a few years down the line (was a small mortgage of £22,000 and we planned to pay it off) - yet was recommended an Endowment policy, 4 years later we managed to save the full £22,000 up and pay it off, but faced £1,000 penalty for early redemption, if we had been correctly advised a similar repayment policy would not have had that penalty.

I have used this argument with Legal and General over the last two years (several letters) but they say it's my word against the independent advisors and they are not willing to take responsibility for his actions.

I have since given up on it even though I feel cheated.

dunstonh

I have used this argument with Legal and General over the last two years (several letters) but they say it's my word against the independent advisors and they are not willing to take responsibility for his actions.

I have since given up on it even though I feel cheated.

L&G are spot on. It has nothing to do with them what the advisor did or said. I dont know why you think it should.

Keen_Saver

dunstonh wrote:

L&G are spot on. It has nothing to do with them what the advisor did or said. I dont know why you think it should.

I agree it's not Legal And Generals fault but the Financial Ombudsman (who told me verbally that I have a very good case) said that I must take it up with Legal and General as the Advisor was working on their behalf in selling me the policy in the first place.

dunstonh

Keen_Saver wrote:

I agree it's not Legal And Generals fault but the Financial Ombudsman (who told me verbally that I have a very good case) said that I must take it up with Legal and General as the Advisor was working on their behalf in selling me the policy in the first place.

Ahh. New information.

This means the advisor wasnt independent. It makes them a tied agent of Legal & General and does make L&G responsible for the advice.

Research was done last year that showed that where tied advice was taken, a significant proportion of the consumers didnt realise it was actually tied and thought the advice was independent. So you are not alone.

Based on what you have said, you do have strong grounds for a successful complaint. If L&G have rejected the complaint, you should go to the ombudsman. It isnt much more work to do. Just repeat the complaint and tell FOS that L&G have rejected it out of hand.

DCLane

englisho wrote:

I'm in the same boat.. independent sold me the endowment.. seemed a bit of a wide boy.. flash car.. bragging about how much he made from endowments.

This was 11 years ago.. but after much searching I found out that he has since changed his company name.. but was selling at the time on behalf of DBS.. now Seseme. Seseme have informed me it could take up to a year before I hear anything regarding my initial complaint of misselling.

Surely there should be some sort of time limit on these things, enforced by the gov.

In effect we have been conned.

I put a complaint into Sesame last April. Following lots of letters and mis-laid letters I apparently had a final response in November. Guess what, I never received it.

They're sending another copy but won't tell me the result ... so I'll wait and see.

Basically I was classified as risk-averse and my wife as very risk-averse, yet we were demonstrated returns of 12-20% plus. We took out an endowment of £40k but only used £35k of it due to other funds. Sesame are questioning why we only used £35k. The adviser was with DBS but is now retired.

David

dencattell

In the early 90's my partner & I were buying our first house and were sold the dreaded endownment mortgage. Being in our early 20's and not having much spare cash, we were directed to go for the endownment. In 2000 we received a letter informing us that suprise suprise, but our endownment was most probably going to have a shortfall. As we were planning to move house again in the next year I did nothing about it at the time and when we did move house in 2001 took out a repayment mortgage, but kept still paying the endownment and never thought anymore of it until I saw Martin's article in November I think it was, encouraging people to still complain about mis-selling. So with nothing to loose I complained and was shocked to receive 2 days before Christmas a letter with an offer of compensation for £1395. Now I'm seeking futher advice should I accept the offer or refuse it and go to the ombudsman and hope for more?

Whatever I decide to do I'd like to Thank Martin so very much for that advice.

dunstonh

Now I'm seeking futher advice should I accept the offer or refuse it and go to the ombudsman and hope for more?

Why do you think you should refuse it and go to the ombudsman?

If the complaint is upheld, then the only thing the ombudsman is likely to do is review the case again and make sure the correct compensation calculation has been used.

The way things are going, if you go down that route and a recalculation is done, you may end up with less or even no compensation due to reducing shortfalls.

englisho

hi..

hope someone can advice me a little..

I have a friend who has been offered a settlement by his endowment company..

He has to choose between two ways of calculation..

a. A settlement based on halifax's variable rates

b. the exact amount as based on the original mortgage

?? help??

dunstonh

englisho wrote:

hi..

hope someone can advice me a little..

I have a friend who has been offered a settlement by his endowment company..

He has to choose between two ways of calculation..

a. A settlement based on halifax's variable rates

b. the exact amount as based on the original mortgage

?? help??

Cant help. Its a personal choice and we would need to do the calculation on both methods to decide which option was best. The exact amount based on actual rates and dates would be virtually impossible to calculate without software.

One method is easy to choose. That is using halifax variable rates. The other requires your friend to provide all the rates and dates of his mortgage since the endowment was taken out.

As a rule of thumb, if his mortgage rate was lower than the Halifax SVR over the term, then he should go for the exact rates. If it was higher, then he should go for the Halifax variable. Endowments are usually better value for money with higher interest rates. It just depends on whether he fancies getting all the rates and dates together.