Bad financial advice to 70 year old

Chick1503

Hi
My dad got into financial difficulty last year and ended up going to a debt service who consolidated his debt with unsecured loan and he had to pay them an agreed monthly figure. He was advised to cancel his life insurance policy that he had had for numerous years and give the £12 a month to the debt company as this company said that he could take out another one at at a later stage in his life. This was cancelled in December on their advice and we have the letter from them with this advice. My dad has recently died of cancer and the insurance company say as he hadn't paid since last December that they will only give us £200 instead of the £2500 that the policy was originally worth, so now we are in a position where we have to pay for a funeral as he didn't have enough money to cover the costs. Can we claim bad advice from the debt company?

sharp82

You can claim it. What are you expecting/wanting the outcome to be though?

spacey2012

Probably not but if he only has £200 to his name, he will be having the last laugh as the debt company and it's loan sharks will be getting a bucket full of sweet FA. If your dad had nothing left, his debts dies with him, the debt firm will try it on hassling relative , you can look forward to telling them to get stuffed.
That has to be worth something.

opinions4u

Intriguing as they're almost certainly not authorised to give advice on life assurance policies.

Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, it is an offence to provide unauthorised financial advice, and doing so could result in a fine or imprisonment of up to two years.

R_P_W

Chick1503 wrote: »

Hi
My dad got into financial difficulty last year and ended up going to a debt service who consolidated his debt with unsecured loan and he had to pay them an agreed monthly figure. He was advised to cancel his life insurance policy that he had had for numerous years and give the £12 a month to the debt company as this company said that he could take out another one at at a later stage in his life. This was cancelled in December on their advice and we have the letter from them with this advice. My dad has recently died of cancer and the insurance company say as he hadn't paid since last December that they will only give us £200 instead of the £2500 that the policy was originally worth, so now we are in a position where we have to pay for a funeral as he didn't have enough money to cover the costs. Can we claim bad advice from the debt company?

Sorry for your loss.

Can you just clarify how you know what advice was given?

Prothet_of_Doom

Chick1503 wrote: »

Hi
This was cancelled in December on their advice and we have the letter from them with this advice.


Can we claim bad advice from the debt company?

You have proof, so I'd have thought they'd be desperate not to have to go to court.

pauletruth

yes give it a go. what harm can it do. sorry that your dad has died.

Chick1503

R_P_W wrote: »

Sorry for your loss.

Can you just clarify how you know what advice was given?

Hi
We have a letter from the debt company saying that he should "cancel his life insurance and pay the £12 a month to them instead as he could take out life insurance after he had paid them" which would have been in 6 years time making him 85 years old!

Chick1503

sharp82 wrote: »

You can claim it. What are you expecting/wanting the outcome to be though?

We were hoping that the debt company would cover the amount that should have been due to cover some of the funerals cost

claret_mike

Sorry for your loss. Link below may be of some help

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_help_with_debt_e/debt_individual_voluntary_arrangements/debt_problems_with_an_individual_voluntary_arrangement/complaining_to_a_debt_management_company_about_an_iva.htm