Is there a time limit on mis-sold insurance policies

Cacran

I was mis-sold an endowment policy in 1986. Is there any time limit on claiming?

dunstonh

Yes. There are several date issues.

1986 is 2 years prior to financial services regulation. So, if you bought via a solicitor, accountant, estate agent, broker or non-bank/non-insurer adviser you cant complain. Banks and insurers will consider pre-regulation complaints where one of their staff sold it.

There is also the 3 & 6 year timebars. Both have to be met to allow barring. 6 years from purchase is the easy one. Clearly it was more than 6 years ago. The other is 3 years from being reasonably aware of an issue. The 3 year rule requires a trigger. In the case of endowments, that is three years from being notified of a high risk of a shortfall. Or three years from maturity.

Most shortfall warnings started around 2001-2004. By 2009, over three-quarters of endowments were timebarred. A 25 year endowment taken out in 1986 matured in 2011. Three years from that is 2014. That was the last chance to complain assuming no other timebar would be applied.

Cacran

Thank you for reply.
I was mis- sold the policy by Halifax Building society. It was an endowment for use as part of my mortgage. I noticed in 1988 that it was not the policy I had asked for and contacted them. They looked back into their records and found a letter that I had sent to them explaining that I wanted a full Endowment not a Low Cost reducing one. They quoted me a really good premium which I accepted. The endowment was for 15 years. In 1988, I was looking at my documents and saw that there was LC attached to my policy number. I queried this and was told it was a Low Cost policy that reduced over the years.
I worked for an insurance company so I knew what I was talking about. They found my letter and agreed that It was mis-sold. A person came to visit me and said that the only thing I could do was take them to court or just accept the error. He said it would probably be costly for me to do so. I had a small baby and could not face the prospect of going to court. I was silly really. I just accepted this. I could kick myself for not doing anything about it, at the time.

dunstonh

I worked for an insurance company so I knew what I was talking about.

Which actually reduces your consumer protection. Its like an actuary who cant count.

. A person came to visit me and said that the only thing I could do was take them to court or just accept the error. He said it would probably be costly for me to do so.

If it was outside the remit of regulatory protection then court was the only way. However, that had a 15 year bar on it.

I could kick myself for not doing anything about it, at the time.

I wouldnt be too worried about it. A full cost endowment was a rare beast by the mid 80s and would have cost you between 3 times per month more than what you paid with the LCE. So, what you had was cheaper. So, you saved money there.

TrickyDicky101

OP, did you actually lose anything as a result? Did you keep the endowment to maturity (was it a 15y policy or longer)? What was the basic sum assured and the eventual pay out? Or did you cancel the policy in 1988 when you noticed it was Low Cost?

Given the timings (and if it really was a 15y policy) your payout may not have been detrimentally impacted by any market downturns.

Are you querying it as a miss-sale because it wasn't what you asked for rather than because Halifax didn't consider your risk profile (which is a euphemism for some people for 'endowment performed badly so I want compensation')?

ACG

dunstonh wrote: »

Which actually reduces your consumer protection. Its like an actuary who cant count.

Could you imagine!