Endowment Mis-selling - Don't give up!

mundax

Having read various articles on MSE on the scandal of mis-selling endowment policies, and with Martin's advice I completed the complaint letter template on the endowmentaction website and sent it off to the Halifax (with whom I have a policy since 1992).

A couple of weeks later I got a reply from the Halifax saying that Standard Life would respond to my complaint. I was sent a pretty straightforward questionnaire from SL which I completed in early March and duly sent it off. I sort of forgot about it after that, mainly because the deadline for complaints to SL was looming (May 06).
Anyway earlier this week I got a letter saying that because the whole process of investigating endowment complaints was complicated it could take about a month for them to respond.

At that stage I was really not expecting anything from them at all, at least not for a month.

To my surprise I recieved a letter this morning from Standard Life offering compensation of £2000!!!

I think it was certainly worth completing some basic paperwork and digging out old payslips to get something back from Standard Life, albeit just in time of the May deadline!

I just want to say thank you MONEYSAVINGEXPERT - I couldn't have done it without you. All i would say to people who still have not done anything about their endowment, is TAKE ACTION NOW because time is running out.

BigDonut

dreamylittledream wrote:

FOS interest rates are sometimes known as 'court rate' (ie they are the interest awarded by law courts)

They are 15% simple up to 1993 and 8% simple thereafter

Not bad really...

Thanks.
I think I'll have to contact the people who performed the calculation because I can't get to their figures using 8% as the rate.

Unless I'm misunderstanding the calculation. I'm using

(total so far + (monthly premium - cost of life cover)) * (1+(0.08/12))

neilsue

We have 2 Prudential policies and have recevied compensation offers from Bradford and Bingley for misselling. We have accepted the one offer, but having received the second we wonder whether what they have offered is reasonable given the positive feedback from others:

Policy 1 (Accepted offer) £ 34,500 Low cost endowment taken out in 1986 for 25 years, projected shortfall £ 5000, compensation £ 1610.

Policy 2 (Not yet accepted) £ 32600 Low cost endowment taken out in 1990 for 21 years, projected shortfall £ 6000, compensation £ 1580.

Can anyone advise if these amounts seem reasonable. The mathematics works on the paperwork sent through, but that is based on assumptions made by the Bradford and Bingley and I am not sure if this is comparable or fair when compared to others.

Thanks in anticipation of your help.

Colwn

savingnow wrote:

I'm probably going to upset many people who were genuinly mis sold endowments, however the normal premise applies, that you get nothing free in this life which was true in the 80's as it is now.

Yes there were mis sellings but how many people were told the truth only to find their greed made them blind.

It was a choice you made therefore don't complain and certainly don't expect any compensation.

W.

I'm sorry but this is an incredibly daft thing to say. I'm not upset, just bemused by what you could be thinking. If a financial advisor is telling you that for a lower cost you are guaranteed a higher return then it's simply common sense to do the deal, not greed. The problem for the people who were mis-sold endowments in the 80's was that they trusted the people working in financial services, mainly because prior to Thatcher's irresponsible deregulation, banks and insurers were generally institutions you could trust. So when we were sold these products with a verbal guarantee that it would pay off the mortgage and leave a healthy cash sum on top we were MIS-SOLD!! Organisations like Standard Life got it badly wrong and sold something that wasn't fit for the purpose i.e. to pay off a mortgage, and they should be made to pay compensation.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Colwn wrote:

If a financial advisor is telling you that for a lower cost you are guaranteed a higher return then it's simply common sense to do the deal, not greed. The problem for the people who were mis-sold endowments in the 80's was that they trusted the people working in financial services, mainly because prior to Thatcher's irresponsible deregulation, banks and insurers were generally institutions you could trust. So when we were sold these products with a verbal guarantee that it would pay off the mortgage and leave a healthy cash sum on top we were MIS-SOLD!!

Hear, hear. All con artists think there victims deserve it, they don't and neither did we. Furthermore, in the 1980's for many people these were the only type of mortgages available to them. People weren't greedy they were victims. At least !!!!!! Turpin wore a mask...... :mad:

Garry_Anderson

BACKFRMTHEEDGE wrote:

Hear, hear. All con artists think there victims deserve it, they don't and neither did we. Furthermore, in the 1980's for many people these were the only type of mortgages available to them. People weren't greedy they were victims. At least !!!!!! Turpin wore a mask...... :mad:

I have actually got documentary evidence of fraud from top management of our building society.

I won official complaint against Financial Services Authority when they refused to answer simple questions.

Then I asked the head of the Serious Fraud Office had people been defrauded - she could not deny it.

Yet she refused to do anything about it - closing her eyes like a bent copper.

Garry Anderson - WoolwichSucks.co.uk - Skilful.com

westerner_2

£50k mortgage taken out in '89. One letter of complaint and one form filled in. Compensation offered, just under £7k.

Straightforward and very worthwhile.
:T

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Oh lucky you ....Congratulations. You must have had one Zombie. :eek:
:j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

Lally

I think a lot of people here are getting confused with the amounts they are being awarded. It is not compensation per se. It is simply the difference between what you would have paid off had you taken a repayment mortgage, and the amount you have paid into your endowment mortgage. In certian cases some other factors will be added into the calculation (such as being advised to cancel an exisiting policy) but the redress is designed to put you back in the position you were in.

I work in the industry and see cases every day where people say "i was promised it would pay off my mortgage and provide a lump sum" but there are illustrations on our file which the client has signed, and which clearly show the possibility of a shortfall. Sure, if things had continued as they were then the policyholder would have a HUGE surplus. But, they didn't, and now people want to complain.

NB I bought one too, in 2000 - what a fool! But I received an offer and I accepted it and quickly changed to a repayment.

JohnFB

I have 2 Endowments:
The first was taken out in July 88 with Norwich Union via the Branch Manager at Woolwich BS. I have been told that there is a High Risk of a shortfall with this one ( approx 15k).

The second was taken out in Dec 94 with Commercial Union (now part of NU) via a CU Agent at an Estate Agents. I have been told that there is a significant risk with this one.

I have 2 questions:
• If I want to complain then do I write to Norwich Union in both cases or do I have to write to the Woolwich (the branch isn’t there any more as it’s now part of Barclays) for the first one, and to the original CU Agent (probably not there any more) ? Surely it makes more sense to complain to NU.
• My warning letter for my first endowment talked about a ‘Norwich Union Promise’ where they may compensate a figure of a max of £6,400 because this is the 6.00 growth figure. However they will not compensate any more if the growth rate falls below 6.00 and it does not sound as if it is guaranteed or dependable. How does this ‘Promise’ work in practice and if I make a Mis-Selling complaint will I lose this ‘Promise’ compensation ?

Thank you