Endowment Mis-selling - Don't give up!

pswurkxm

Lally wrote:

Im sorry to hear of the run around you have been given. Try this link http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/ to see if this person is still authorised by the FSA.

My endowment was also with ScotAm (taken over by Pru) and I got a payout. You have said that "As i purchased in Febuary 1988 outside the FSA guidelines,Not interested was there reply,so i contacted the Ombusman,Not interested was there reply." However, they would have rejected your complaint as it was sold by an IFA, not anything to do with regulation or the takeover.

Good luck!

Thanks for the return
i bit confused,r u saying i need to contact the IFA or the the Pru,for compensation?

dunstonh

You contact the advising company, not the insurance company, when its an indpendent financial advisor or multi-tied (the latter not being that common yet)

The_Mole_4

I'm another user caught in the pre-1988 trap - the estate agent I used has been taken over a few times. Surprisingly my complaint did get a reply. But not so surprisingly, it was rejected because it was before the 1988 legislation which removes their liability.

So, it looks like I have three options:
(1) take legal action
(2) take it as one of life's lessons and be glad I'm a bit more financially savvy now.
(3) Use one of the many sharks (sorry companies) advertising about mis-selling and let them do the dirty work - and not get as good a return

If anyone knows of an option I'm missing, please let me know. And is there is a vaguely ethical company that would pursue my claim - any recommendations (if that's allowed on this site).

Apologies if this question has been asked before - but I have not been through all 59 pages.

moonshine386

To The Mole:

I am in a similar situation. Despite the difficult ones playing the 1988 Act card to clear their conscience and wriggle out of paying compensation, they still had a "duty of care" to customers of which they seem to forget.

In my case the award winning building society, the Principality, coerced me into converting from repayment, by mailshots and a home visit, to a Norwich Union endowment, used the Act as their trump card. Before the endowment was due to start in October 1986, I wrote to a Principalty senior manager saying that it seemed too good to be true and could I convert back to a repayment. From his reply, he assured me that the product was in my best interests. Principality and myself have copies of the correspondence. I took up the matter with the FSA. The case took some time for it conclusion to come out in favour of the Principalty. The ombudsman stated that the lengthy delays were due to them being inundated with claims, obviously the 1988 Act did not have much of an impact on the fraudulent selling, it must have been far worse before the Act!

From the ombudsman's closing case letter, they completely misrepresented me in the facts given. suggesting that I had approached Principality/Norwich Union requesting a change to endowment, that I had filled in the application form as a result of me requesting a brochure on the product!!!???. At one stage they wanted me to name the salesman/adviser who called to the home - I thought the onus would be on the Principality to supply that information as they would have records of the contract, commission paid and the mutual business promotion between themselves and the Norwich Union. I met all the criterior and was categorically told it would pay off the mortgage target amount, let alone almost the same amount in bonuses. No risks mentioned, only that one would be stupid to refuse such a proposition.

I have not given up, I have written to the ombudsman and Principality again, waiting their replies.

Best of luck.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

The_Mole wrote:

So, it looks like I have three options:
(1) take legal action
(2) take it as one of life's lessons and be glad I'm a bit more financially savvy now.
(3) Use one of the many sharks (sorry companies) advertising about mis-selling and let them do the dirty work - and not get as good a return

Sorry you have "no" options not 3 options Nobody can get you compensation on a pre-1988 policy. Sorry.

defender_of_the_weak

Mole

Options

1. Legal action under the small or high court, always an option and not time barred.

2. Accept the position

3. Don't call me a shark it is impolite, you know nothing about me, my ethics or the business I run.

Lally

pswurkxm wrote:

Thanks for the return
i bit confused,r u saying i need to contact the IFA or the the Pru,for compensation?

The IFA. The complaint is about the advice given, and the IFA gave the advice. If you get no joy, go to the Ombudsman.

Lally

A note for the pre 1988 people. My company accept liability and look at these cases. But about 99% of cases get no money, as the endowments have performed so well. As I said earlier, we are trying to put you in the position you would have been in had you taken out a repayment mortgage, and we would preform a comparison between the two. We are not just saying "here you go, have some money"
If the repayment would have made you better off, you would be given that amount. However, in most of the pre 1988 cases, the endowment has outperformed the potential reduction in mortgage. So while you may feel hard done by if your insurance company isn't looking at your case, you probably ARE better off than you would have been with a repayment mortgage. Obviously this is just a generalisation, but it is an attempt to lay some frustrations to rest.

TurnaroundSue

Hi - I am hoping somebody can give me advice on what to do with my endowment and whether I was actually missold it! We took out the endowment in 1987 with Standard Life and didn't actually use a broker but went to SL direct who gladly sold us the policy. We weren't given any advice and in fact at that time, the commission that would have gone to the broker went into our fund. We haven't heard anything about the fact that our policy would have a shortfall until last week when we received our annual statement. At the time of taking out the policy we were told that based on a 7% (I think it was) return we would receive £52k+ for a mortgage of £26,600. Twice the amount of the mortgage and a nice little nest egg. So we were shocked to see that now we will only receive £15k at the present time.

My questions are:

How come we have only been told of this shortfall now when it has been going on for years? I know there is only a certain period of time before you no longer can claim any compensation - if so, does anybody know when this is?
Can we try and get compensation for miselling when in fact we went to the Company direct and didn't actually receive ANY advice?

Many thanks for any help you are able to give.

dreamylittledream

TurnaroundSue wrote:

Hi - I am hoping somebody can give me advice on what to do with my endowment and whether I was actually missold it! We took out the endowment in 1987 with Standard Life and didn't actually use a broker but went to SL direct who gladly sold us the policy. We weren't given any advice and in fact at that time, the commission that would have gone to the broker went into our fund. We haven't heard anything about the fact that our policy would have a shortfall until last week when we received our annual statement. At the time of taking out the policy we were told that based on a 7% (I think it was) return we would receive £52k+ for a mortgage of £26,600. Twice the amount of the mortgage and a nice little nest egg. So we were shocked to see that now we will only receive £15k at the present time.

My questions are:

How come we have only been told of this shortfall now when it has been going on for years? I know there is only a certain period of time before you no longer can claim any compensation - if so, does anybody know when this is?
Can we try and get compensation for miselling when in fact we went to the Company direct and didn't actually receive ANY advice?

Many thanks for any help you are able to give.

Claims for miss selling are purely on the advice given - not on investment performance.

Given you were sold the policy before regulation and you admit without advice you chances of 'miss-selling' are limited...