Mis-sold Endowment Policy by Solicitor - Any Advice

irvine

Hi can anyone out there advise me please. I really feel that i was mis-sold an endowment policy by the solicitor who handled the purchase of our 1st property (way back in 1989 when my ordinary working class people were very naive about these things). The policy is not even going to pay back half of what was expected (plus no lump sum). I tried contacting the solicitors who acted on our behalf (the company is still practising although the actually solicitor has left) and they deny responsibility. I tried the Law Society for Scotland who were no help, the FSA who merely sent me standard leaflets. It would appear that no one is responsible for our predicatment, meanwhile we have to suffer. We were only notified about the shortfall approximately 5 years ago and we immediately remortgaged to a repayment mortgage.

If anyone has any suggestions i'd be very grateful.

lynnexxxo

Contact your endowment company and tell them you wish to make a formal complaint as you feel you have been missold an endowment. We complained to Royal and Sunalliance that we had been missold on the basis that the financial advisor floated over the fact that the endowment might not make what we wanted - and was asking us what we would do with the money if it paid an extra 50k or so (and had us dreaming of going round the world cruises etc - in retrospect I can't believe I was so naive!).

Royal Aunalliance ruled in our favour. Although as it was a relatively new endowment we had not suffered financially (the amount the endownment was worth was the same as the amount we would have paid off in a repayment mortgage) we did not get any compensation.

They did agree to pay any fees for changing our mortgage to a repayment mortgage (think it was £250).

dunstonh

Contact your endowment company and tell them you wish to make a formal complaint as you feel you have been missold an endowment.

They will reject the complaint as the endowment company didnt give the advice.

Royal Aunalliance ruled in our favour.

Because it was sold by an R&SA rep and not a solicitor or IFA.

I tried the Law Society for Scotland who were no help, the FSA who merely sent me standard leaflets

The FSA did not cover solicitors then. The regulatory body here is the Law Society for Scotland but they wont be interested because of when it was taken out.

We were only notified about the shortfall approximately 5 years ago and we immediately remortgaged to a repayment mortgage.

Even if you could complain, you would almost certainly be time barred now anyway. It is three years from being notified of a high risk of not meeting target. So, you got yours 5 years ago.

Unfortunatly, your endowment is pre-regulation and Scotland. Its end of the road as far as looking for redress goes.

You could get the policy reviewed though. Projections are notoriously inaccurate ranging from understating likely returns to overstating them. Some very good policies show shortfalls due to the nature of the projection method. You cannot rely on the projections alone.

lynnexxxo

At the time I thought he was a IFA but then Barratt organised him to come round to the house and sort out our mortgage. I remember him saying something along the lines of ' i'm not totally independant but as good as'.

Yip, I may have been younger and thinner but I hope now I wouldn't be so niave!