Endowment Mis-selling - Don't give up!

Lally

paws17 wrote:

I have discovered that the Financial Services Company that mis-sold me a Friends Provident endowment before the 1988 protection came in are no longer trading. The FSCS don't want to know because of the pre-88 date but have referred me to:

1- consider legal action (against who???)
2- contact Citizen's Advice Bureau
3- contact Financial Ombudsman

4 - I also wondered whether FP would be worth pursuing in this situation - and if so, on what basis?

Can anyone provide any hopeful advice for me or at least prioritise or narrow down the above 4 options on the basis of their own experiences or expertise?

cheers!

I said in a previous post that the vast majority (if not all) of pre 1988 endowments will not offer any redress. They may uphold your complaint and agree that you were mis-sold, but when it comes to the calculation part, you will be thousands of pounds better off having the endowment than you would have been with a repayment. I suggest you stop worrying and give up, it aint worth the hassle.

SAZZLEEVANS

I just got £3164 thanks to this site!!!

Thank you. They accepted that the endowment had been missold!!! Wow!!!

Sarah

spicygirly

my husband tried a website which advises wether you have a case for mis-selling (mortgage endowment) the site advised him to forget it, no chance! i then read on this site all the posts from successful claimants and decided to write to the company concerned (c & g ) they were great, dealt with the claim really quickly, it was a bit of a pain filling in all the forms - with my husband telling me i was wasting my time! - however we have now been offered £3,ooo!!! thankyou all.

dreamylittledream

Lally wrote:

I said in a previous post that the vast majority (if not all) of pre 1988 endowments will not offer any redress. They may uphold your complaint and agree that you were mis-sold, but when it comes to the calculation part, you will be thousands of pounds better off having the endowment than you would have been with a repayment. I suggest you stop worrying and give up, it aint worth the hassle.

Sadly that simply isn't true as the number of offers on pre A Day cases (April 88) will testify.

There are no hard and fast rules, but from my experience on most funds, policies sold from as late as 1986 are showing financial loss. With poor performing funds (no prizes for guessing the usual suspects), the redress can be as high as the average Post A day claim.

However offers issues by the FSCS (becuase of their insistance in deducting any notional savings gained by having an endowment rather then a repayment mortgage) are generally derisory and arguably not worth pursuing on smaller policies.

goblin

I'm not sure on the etiquette of the forum, therefore sorry if I am interrupting where I shouldn't, but wonder if someone can PLEASE help me. I posted my problem a few weeks back and didn't really get anywhere then.

Basically it would seem I am unable to get help from either:

the Ombudsman - as the firm who sold me the policy are no longer trading and I haven’t been able to establish who bought their business, or

the FSCS – as the policy was bought on 14 July 1988, and the FSCS can’t investigate any policies sold pre 28 Aug 1988.

I keep shoving this to the back of my mind, believing there’s nothing I can do, but my Standard Life endowment due to pay off my 25 yr mortgage in 2014 is set to fail by around 50%. I just keep ostriching over the future and think I’ll probably have to sell up to survive in the end. I’ll be due to retire shortly after that.

I anyone out there has any advice, I would be eternally grateful.

dunstonh

goblin wrote:

I'm not sure on the etiquette of the forum, therefore sorry if I am interrupting where I shouldn't, but wonder if someone can PLEASE help me. I posted my problem a few weeks back and didn't really get anywhere then.

Basically it would seem I am unable to get help from either:

the Ombudsman - as the firm who sold me the policy are no longer trading and I haven’t been able to establish who bought their business, or

the FSCS – as the policy was bought on 14 July 1988, and the FSCS can’t investigate any policies sold pre 28 Aug 1988.

I keep shoving this to the back of my mind, believing there’s nothing I can do, but my Standard Life endowment due to pay off my 25 yr mortgage in 2014 is set to fail by around 50%. I just keep ostriching over the future and think I’ll probably have to sell up to survive in the end. I’ll be due to retire shortly after that.

I anyone out there has any advice, I would be eternally grateful.

End of the road. You have no-one to claim against. Whilst one or two may suggest court action, you would not find many suggesting that as a worthwhile option and not many have succeeded (with regards to mis-selling).

vinno65

dunstonh wrote:

End of the road. You have no-one to claim against. Whilst one or two may suggest court action, you would not find many suggesting that as a worthwhile option and not many have succeeded (with regards to mis-selling).

How many have tried? When you're told contsantly that you heve no further course of action you will likely give up. But court has always been an option for consumers but people were steered clear of this by by the collusion of the FSA and the firms telling people that they could avoid court by using the FOS. They told people that the FOS was more informal than the law and more people friendly. I can only say from my own experience that the total opposite is true.

I belive it was set up with the best of intentions but has been bullied by the industry and bent to their will. You only have to looked at the incredible decisions coming out of the FOS that bear no resemblance to tthe rules and guidance put in place by the FSA

regards Vinno

dunstonh

vinno65 wrote:

How many have tried? When you're told contsantly that you heve no further course of action you will likely give up. But court has always been an option for consumers but people were steered clear of this by by the collusion of the FSA and the firms telling people that they could avoid court by using the FOS. They told people that the FOS was more informal than the law and more people friendly. I can only say from my own experience that the total opposite is true.

I belive it was set up with the best of intentions but has been bullied by the industry and bent to their will. You only have to looked at the incredible decisions coming out of the FOS that bear no resemblance to tthe rules and guidance put in place by the FSA

regards Vinno

But who do you take to court? If it was a limited company that has closed, then there is no legal entity any more. Then you have to show that you were mis-sold. Documentary evidence carries the most weight otherwise its "our" word against "theirs" which is very hard to decide a case on. Things like the key features documents and illustrations, which the FOS puts very little weight on will take a greater importance in a court of law.

Its one thing to overturn a timebar but its another to prove a mis-sale.

Matt_EA

Another post offering thanks to MSE peeps! Thanks to Martin's email newsletter, people's posts on here, and the Which site, I persuaded my father to write to Barclays with a compaint about his endowment mortgage. Five weeks later, he's been offered £4,500 due to mis-selling, and even better - he's offered me £500 of that for giving him the idea to complain in the first place! Result :j

vinno65

dunstonh wrote:

But who do you take to court? If it was a limited company that has closed, then there is no legal entity any more. Then you have to show that you were mis-sold. Documentary evidence carries the most weight otherwise its "our" word against "theirs" which is very hard to decide a case on. Things like the key features documents and illustrations, which the FOS puts very little weight on will take a greater importance in a court of law.

Its one thing to overturn a timebar but its another to prove a mis-sale.

I take your point if you don't have anyone you can sue, but as to documents
like illustrations and key features, as an IFA you may have kept good records but you know and I know that for whatever reason the major banks and life companies haven't. A large percentage of mis-sales are upheld on the grounds that they have no documentary evidence to prove a sale was compliant. As to court, the judiciary I'm sure are aware of the mis-selling scandal and I offered in court the evidence of surveys conducted by the FSA Consumers Association etc showing that over 50% of people sold endowments were told verbally that their mortgage would definately be paid off. So any verbal evidence you offer on this point even without documentary proof would hold sway.

Also I did not just overturn a time bar. Once FP had failed to have my case thrown out they amended their defence before it got to trial to state that I was not entitled to the money I was claiming. Once the judge had ruled my claim was not statute time barred she then had to rule on whether i was entitled to my money or not. I could only offer verbal evidence as to the advice I had recieved at the point of sale, as I had no documentary proof of what I had been told. The judge said I had offered my evidence very well and accepted my story, so it proves you can win on a "my word against their's" scenario and prove a mis-sale.
The major life companies have not covered themselves in any glory over this in the last few years incurring fine after fine, the judiciary I am sure are well aware of this, it would be like a repeat offender turning up in court who would you believe??
regards Vinno