Avia

sheila_gibson

Hi  I received a letter back in February to say my endowment was due to mature at the end of March along with some paperwork I needed to complete. I did all this and returned it to them at the end of February. 
in the letter it told me how much money I would get.
I didn’t hear anything from them so I rang them on April the 2nd and the lady I spoke to said it would all be sorted by the 24th of April.
I received a letter last week telling me what the final payment would be. It is nearly 7000 less than the original letter.
i have phoned Avia to ask for an explanation only to be told that it is all to do with the coronavirus.
Do I have to accept this or can I take it further to the FSA for example. The last payment on the policy was taken in February before all the virus had started.

Old_Lifer

Was this a unit-linked endowment,   where the amount payable at maturity  would have been whatever was the value  of the units held at that date?

Hasbeen

sheila_gibson said:

Hi  I received a letter back in February to say my endowment was due to mature at the end of March along with some paperwork I needed to complete. I did all this and returned it to them at the end of February. 
in the letter it told me how much money I would get.
I didn’t hear anything from them so I rang them on April the 2nd and the lady I spoke to said it would all be sorted by the 24th of April.
I received a letter last week telling me what the final payment would be. It is nearly 7000 less than the original letter.
i have phoned Avia to ask for an explanation only to be told that it is all to do with the coronavirus.
Do I have to accept this or can I take it further to the FSA for example. The last payment on the policy was taken in February before all the virus had started.

Is avia an endowment company?

The markets since the start of the coronavirus have been very volatile.

I would assume the price has fallen pretty dramatically since February until the end of March when policy was "cashed" in?

dunstonh

in the letter it told me how much money I would get.

That doesn't sound correct.  The advance maturity letters usually state what you could get using FCA regulated growth rate assumptions.   So, "could" rather than "would".

i have phoned Avia to ask for an explanation only to be told that it is all to do with the coronavirus.

I would have thought that goes without saying seeing as the markets fell around 35% to late March (although recovered a bit since)

Do I have to accept this or can I take it further to the FSA for example.

The Food Standards Agency have nothing to do with your investments.    If you mean the FCA, then they do not handle consumer complaints.  However, they are also not responsible, like Aviva, for the stockmarkets falling due to Coronavirus.

If your plan is a unit linked endowment, then its your decision where you invest the money.  Unless you gave instructions (or your advice gave instructions) to Aviva to reduce your investment risk in the lead up to maturity, then Aviva have no choice but to leave your money invested where you told them to. 

There is no wrongdoing here by the provider.  However, it is a good example of why you should de-risk investments in the years leading up to maturity.

Old_Lifer

The Food Standards Agency would not make a meal of this   -    it is not something they could get their teeth into  and not something they could chew over.

sheila_gibson

Sorry I meant FCA