Endowment delay in paying out

Claire_Hodgkinson

Hi all,
I have a friend who took out an endowment with his then partner 25 years ago, about a year later they split up, the mortgage company was notified and this document was changed but unfortunately the endowment policy seems to have not been changed and she is still named on this policy.  She only paid into the endowment for the year that they were still together.  The endowment company has been trying to track her down as my friend does not know where she is but they are being very uncommunicative about how far they are into this investigation.  It has been 4 months now and he is stuck paying interest on the mortgage that should have been paid off by the endowment.  The questions are - does she legally have the right to this money and if so can he do anything about it because morally the money does belong to him.  How long is it acceptable to wait before officially complaining?  Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

MWT

This seems to happen quite frequently unfortunately.

It is helpful that the endowment company are trying to track her down, but your friend needs to be prepared for what happens if they do find her as well as if they don't, and should also be doing their best to locate her...

In an ideal world they will find her and she will willingly assign her half of the endowment to your friend.

If they cannot reach an amicable agreement then it will end up in court.

If they can't find her and there is no evidence that she is deceased then it also ends up in court...

The endowment company is going to need her signature, or proof of her demise, or a court order.

No obvious result here that leaves your friend in a position to raise a complaint...