endowment win fees?

gillykins

Hi guys, Iam about to sign on the dotted line to allow a firm to persue an endowment miss-sell and to organise a re-mortgage. They have met with me twice and explained that thier fee will be 20% of any compensation payed out by Standard Life if we win. No fee if we lose.

Questions:

1. Will I have to close the endowment or can I keep it going in view of their demutualisation in 2006 to take advantage of the windfall?

2. If it is a good idea to go for compensation, is their fee reasonable (the fund is worth £5000 at the moment with 11 years to run at £70 a month on a 40 year old female paying a mortgage of £21500)?

3. Are there better ways to go about this? ie, don't use a broker go straight to bank for a mortgage and persue comp. myself.

Fairdo_2

We had some fun and games with one of these "Ambulance chaser" firms advertising themselves by being a wolf in sheeps clothing, as they were found out some fellow contributors described them perfectly as the lowest of the low.

You can save yourself this 20% by taking the time out to fill out the claim forms yourself.

The first port of call is to take advice impartially and, as important, for free.

I pointed out a website yesterday in another thread that would be a useful starting point.


https://www.which.co.uk

If you then go into their "campaigns" area, you would find really useful pointers as well as a downloadable letter template to complain, without cost or obligation.

Avoid these Ambulance Chasers in my opinion.

TheManWithNoName_3

20% is at he lower end , but no reason to pay anything ( see Fairdo's link)

Yeah, did not take much to "out" the poster the other day- shame these threads often get deleted rather edited, as all my posts get deleted as well

Fairdo_2

Agree completely, as I know I put that link on a thread that got deleted. Mind you I suppose it is better to completely erase these people and make sure they have no more coverage. More than they deserve anyway!!

Have you thought of opening a detective agency ManWithNoName? You have the eye and the name for it!

EdInvestor

Gillykins

gillykins wrote:

Will I have to close the endowment or can I keep it going in view of their demutualisation in 2006 to take advantage of the windfall?

#No, you don't have to surrender it before the DM.

If it is a good idea to go for compensation, is their fee reasonable (the fund is worth £5000 at the moment with 11 years to run at £70 a month on a 40 year old female paying a mortgage of £21500.Are there better ways to go about this? ie, don't use a broker go straight to bank for a mortgage and persue comp. myself.

#I agree with other posters, try a DIY compensation claim via https://www.endowmentaction.co.uk

And don't do anything else until after the DM next year.:)

Betty_Boop

I did a DIY compensation earlier this year and took every penny for myself. Well worth the few hours I had to put into getting details together. Now I have £18,000 to pay off on my mortgage next month.

defender_of_the_weak

Odds are you will win with Standard life. Also, if your case is upheld they will offer £350 towards the cost of meeting with an IFA to discuss your options after the case is over. 20% is too much of a fee.

To those who do not like Ambulance chasers, there is a simple answer. If the companies actually treated people fairly they would not exist. How was it that 93% of Abbey customers had their complaints kicked into the long grass as opposed to an average turndown rate of 30% across the entire mrket?

Also please remember that a significant proportion of the population are financially illiterate and unable to undertake even simple calculations (FSA report last year).

Why is it that every case I see that has been turned down uses the which template?

To come back to the point if this policy was sold directly by Standard Life you will probably win, if that is the case have a go yourself

gillykins

Would you recommend tweeking the 'which' template but follow its basic rules?

sleepless_saver

gillykins wrote:

3. Are there better ways to go about this? ie, don't use a broker go straight to bank for a mortgage and persue comp. myself.

Misselling complaints to Standard Life have a 90% success rate according to House of Commons report. Apparently their record keeping not good. I found the whole process pain free once I started although I had been worried about it. Standard Life were really helpful and prompt. They offer to continue paying the life cover if you switch to repayment if they uphold your complaint.
Plus as defender of the weak says they will pay £350 towards IFA advice on what to do with your endowment :think:. And their dedicated endowment complaints staff are knowledgeable and helpful.

So 100% for dealing with the complaint - just wish they hadn't sold me the duff policy in the first place :eek:

dunstonh

Caroline Mitchell of the FOS says that:

"we notice that a complaint from the client themselves is usually very different from those coming from third parties. It is actually a lot hard to resolve complaints coming through other companies or consumer groups. We dont uphold every complaint and we know that people will jump on the bandwagons"

defender_of_the_weak

The reason for the FOS comment is because some of us actually know what was happening in the 80's and 90's and how the rules should have been applied. Most people use the which template and this focuses on attitude to risk and performance guarantees, both of which are fairly easy to defend with a half decent fact find or set of notes

As for the comments of sleepless saver they are quite right, 90% uphold rate so in the first instance try it yourself