endownment plan - should i continue

Greentea

I took out an endownment 10 years ago for my house.

I pay 41.20 over 20 years.

The total value as at 25 May 2005 is 4,413.12

The plan is supposed to pay out 16,150. There is also death benefit and critical illness included in this plan.

I have since changed to a repayment mortgage.


2 questions:

Is there a possibility this endowment was missold?
Should I continue paying the £41.20?

thanks for any advice.

EdInvestor

Hello greentea

What company is it with?

Is it a With profits endowment?
If so post some figs:

Guaranteed sum assured
Total bonuses
Surrender value

If it's a unit linked endowment what fund(s) is it invested in?

For guidance on misselling complaints try this site:

https://www.endowmentaction.co.uk

Greentea

Editor

It is a unit linked plan. I dont think it is with profits

It is Halifax Investment Mandate:

investment units bid price fund value
Foundation Fund 3530.815 0.4184 1,477.29
Balanced Fund 3812.299 0.3835 1,462.02
Opportunity Fund 3412.103 0.4308 1,473.81

Total Fund 4,413.12

trademark

green tea ... i may be corrected here but i believe its only with profits funds that you have any call for complaint/compensation

can i ask how old you are ... the reason being that critical illness cover has gone through the roof these days , i pay £29 (joint cover) we are 37 and 34 , we have a comprehensive policy with swiss life and this is very very cheap .

critical illness cover (and life cover) are essential in your 30,s and above in my opinion , make some phone calls today and get a quote , i was horrified at the premiums as i was trying to get my premium down , the cheapest i could get was £47 .

if we do not get ill (touch wood) then we will get nothing back ....... you will win either way and the halifax are a good bet whichever financial path you choose .

so to conclude ... i would just treat it as a life policy and forget future projections ... when the money comes in at maturity then just treat it as a bonus

EdInvestor

trademark wrote:

green tea ... i may be corrected here but i believe its only with profits funds that you have any call for complaint/compensation

Not at all.Greentea should look at the site I mentioned to see if he had grounds to complain.

trademark

ooops ... yes sorry my mistake ... i got mixed up with companies who only buy with profits policys

EdInvestor

Greentea

I had a look at the choice of Halifax funds listed below and, guess what, the two types of funds which several of us often mention on these boards are again putting in the best performance over 1,3 and 5 years

These are No 1369, the Property fund and No 1350, the rather confusingly named "High Dual" fund. This latter turns out to be an Equity Income fund - this type of fund invests in shares which pay good dividends, and usually does better than the funds which invest in shares which don't pay dividends. [This may not be rocket science;)]

http://www.trustnet.com/life/funds/perf.asp?txtS=&txtSS=&sort=3&page=13&ss=0&columns=&sec=all&status=all&def=1

Now this is not advice and as the FSA says,"past performance is no guide to the future".But IMHO it would be worth considering switching your money out of the three funds it's in now and reinvest it split between the two I've mentioned, which will also be less risky than the ones you're in now.

Check with Halifax that there are no charges for this switch and ask them how much they're charging you for the policy while you're on the phone. Then I would suggest you monitor performance for a bit and see how the policy goes compared with a cash deposit.If it seems you're paying too much in charges then you can surrender later, but these 2 funds seem quite decent and I'd have thought worth giving it a try.

It's also a good point that the two insurance components could be expensive to replace, worth checking.