Mis-sold life assurance - recourse?

mrbadexample

:hello:

When I took out my first mortgage, a little over 3 years ago, I was also sold life assurance. The mortgage advisor I spoke to implied that it was a condition of the mortgage that I took out the life assurance as part of the deal.
I subsequently (and after finding this site!) discovered this was cobblers, and cancelled it.
Today one of my mates said that I could reclaim the amount I paid (guessing about £20 a month for 18 months or so - I'd have to look it up), less set-up costs etc.

Is that right? How would I go about doing that then? I hate feeling like I was conned....:mad:

Cheers,
MBE

MarkyMarkD

You had the benefit of the insurance policy during the time it was in force. There's no way you would get refunded the full amount even if it were mis-sold.

As I'm presuming that the seller did a fact find, and recorded your reasons for needing the policy, and you signed to accept this fact find, I doubt that you can demonstrate it was mis-sold at all.

mrbadexample

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

You had the benefit of the insurance policy during the time it was in force. There's no way you would get refunded the full amount even if it were mis-sold.

As I'm presuming that the seller did a fact find, and recorded your reasons for needing the policy, and you signed to accept this fact find, I doubt that you can demonstrate it was mis-sold at all.

Cheers MMD - not worried about a full refund, I'd written this off long ago! It was just that my mate said I should be able to cash-in or claim back what I had paid in - I wasn't putting too much emphasis on the mis-sold bit. I just wondered if that was true - is there a pot waiting for me to collect somewhere?

As far as the mis-selling goes, I knew nothing about mortgages or any of the associated bunk. The seller implied that it it was a requirement of my lender that I have life assurance. Hence one of my very first threads! As far as fact-finding, I am single with no dependants. If I die, what happens to my house will be the least of my concerns. I'll be too busy dodging flames. There is no possible benefit to my having life assurance at this time.

I don't remember signing anything about his fact finding - I don't throw anything out, so I'll still have it if I did. I'll have a look. Sometime. :rolleyes:

dunstonh

If you can prove you were mis-sold then you could get a refund of premiums. I did this for someone with a TSB life assurance a few years back. However, its damned hard to prove. You would have to prove that you have no financial need for it (i.e. no-one financially worse off in the event of your death). You suggest this may be the case for you. So, you may have good grounds.

The seller implied that it it was a requirement of my lender that I have life assurance.

It did used to be a case with most lenders and there are still a couple that insist on it.

I don't remember signing anything about his fact finding - I don't throw anything out, so I'll still have it if I did. I'll have a look. Sometime. :rolleyes:

Factfinds dont have to be signed and protection factfinds are often little more than a single page showing your name, address and date of birth. Indeed, a copy of the mortgage application will often suffice.

noh

if i look at your linked thread I see your policy included critical illness cover. I would think that makes it even harder to prove misselling.
A mortgage I took with Abbey National in 1985 had a requirement for life Insurance. I refused to take out the insurance nothing more came of it.

Nigel

mrbadexample

dunstonh wrote: »

If you can prove you were mis-sold then you could get a refund of premiums. I did this for someone with a TSB life assurance a few years back. However, its damned hard to prove. You would have to prove that you have no financial need for it (i.e. no-one financially worse off in the event of your death). You suggest this may be the case for you. So, you may have good grounds.

Question is, for probably less than £400, is it worth trying? How much work is involved? Should I just go back to sleep?

I can prove that no-one's going to be financially worse off in the event of my death. As noh pointed out, it did offer critical illness cover (although they carefully opted out of anything that might actually happen). I don't think I needed that, either. :rolleyes:

dunstonh

As it has CI cover built in that makes it even harder. Some providers on the tied side only offered combined cover. If it was a tied agent you saw then they have a responsibility to recommend the best option from their product range. It wont be the best option on the "whole of market" but that isnt their requirement. So, in that case, it wouldnt be a mis-sale. If it was an IFA, then it could be providing the lender didnt have the criteria of requiring life cover. Standalone CI policies have been available to IFAs for over a decade.

mrbadexample

Cheers dunstonh...I don't think this is going to be worth the bother. My mate seemed to be of the opinion that the payments I have made are (minus costs) sat in a pot somewhere waiting for me to collect. Is that complete cobblers?

dunstonh

My mate seemed to be of the opinion that the payments I have made are (minus costs) sat in a pot somewhere waiting for me to collect. Is that complete cobblers?

Yes. It is complete cobblers. If it was an indepedent IFA, it would come out of their pocket. If it was an employee, it would come out of the employers pocket (although some reserve the right to deduct from wages).

Personally, I think mis-sales should be paid for be the adviser involved but there is no pot of gold. A few years back one of the endowment claims companies advertised a fair bit giving the impression that there was free money to claim and that it was worded as if it was pot of money to collect from.

mrbadexample

Sorry dunstonh, I've really manage to muddy the waters with the mis-sold bit.

Forget that for the moment - what I'm asking is: I had a life assurance policy. I paid some cash into it every month for about 18 months. I cancelled it. Can I cash in what I paid out?

Sorry, I really wasn't very clear.

dunstonh

It obtains no value. Its a bit like car insurance or house insurance. The only time they pay out is if you claim. They dont accrue a value to return to you.