Scottish Amicable Endowment - Payment Of Further Bonus

makensie

Just had a letter from Pru on the subject of the additional terminal bonus:

"The inherited estate is effectively the amount of money held in the with-profits fund over and above that required to meet the liabilities. This amount would normally be used in a continuing life company to fund future new business and provide investment opportunities for the with-profits policy holders. Following the merger with Prudential the "estate" was no longer needed for these purposes and was therefore available for release to those with-profits policy holders remaining in the closed fund. The inherited estate was distributed by two methods. Firstly, a special bonus was paid in October 1997 and added to all eligible policies. This was shown at the bottom of the 1997 annual bonus notice. Secondly, terminal bonus rates would be improved so that the overall effect from these two methods would improve the final maturity value".

I received this letter after calling the Pru for an explanation of how the £530M inherited estate was being paid out. Hope this helps

Froggitt

Thanks. However the original transfer document clearly takes precedence over however today they wish to interpret events 15 years ago. This clearly states that on maturity, a Further Bonus will be paid to all eligible policies, to be paid from a half a billion pound fund.....which even a monkey should have turned into over one billion pounds today.

Tasape

just had my quotes for my policy exp oct 1 2012
was 38k + profits originally
latest figures 32,700 at termination
not as bad as i thought it could be not what i wanted but...........

thebull

More tales of skulduggery out about our financial friends it seems to ME that they CANNOT BE TRUSTED we must get the truth about our money .But how ????????

Froggitt

Complaint to the FOS.

Daibach_15

Pru tried to get Scot Am policy holders to transfer to the Pru fund. I declined. The Scot Am remaining policy holders have diminished over time leaving what should be a healthy residual fund pool. What is the situation at maturity because the interim bonus notices don't appear to recognise I remained with the Scot Am 'pool' of policies ??

Froggitt

Daibach - you may have voted against at the time, but you were outvoted, and your policy became a Pru policy, along with everyone elses. It is a ringfenced "ScotAm" fund at the Pru that AFAIK all ScotAm policies were transferred into......but I don't think that you had an option to not transfer.

cjph

Apologies : as I posted on the other Prudential ScAm (love those initials !) :

My Scottish Amicable policy matures next March after 25 years. The projected £56K endowment is now expected to be £8K short at £48K, leaving me unimpressed to say the least. And the nice lady on the phone tells me it includes 'all' bonuses due, including the 1997 further bonus.

As the policy was sold to me before April 1988 neither the ombudsman or FSCS will offer any help or advise, and ScotAm/Prudential will not entertain any liability as it was sold by the finance arm of an estate agent which long since ceased trading, so not covered by any of the compensation schemes.

I am totally disillusioned with the whole finance industry, since I don't understand how a company can sell such a woeful product then wash its hands of it because it was sold through a third party. If a car fell apart, the manufacturer would not be allowed to brush off customers because they did not purchase it from them directly. I have a quote from Scottish Amicable with a projected surplus of almost £9K (not guaranteed, of course), but am now looking at a shortfall of £8K, so a miss of £17K; nearly a third of the original value. I don't think any of us would be in our jobs long if we worked on such results.

The big joke is that the finance industry has shown itself completely incapable of managing investments, so governments 'punish' them with more money. And to top it all, when they tell you your investment is failing (due to market conditions of their own making), they advise taking out FURTHER investment cover the shortfall they've caused.

Unfortunately, this current situation means that, although most of the mortgage will end next year, costs will actually increase to cover the shortfall, and so we are looking at selling our house and downsizing, with an opportunity to pay off the remaining mortgage and finally be free. If only I did not need a bank account or card for so many things these days.

cj

Froggitt

As I posted on the other thread, ask Pru for the further bonuses, if they refuse ask for a final letter, then go with your complaint to the FOS. Im sure I can post the relevant parts of the 1997 documentation for your complaint when I get home later.

dunstonh

Froggitt wrote: »

As I posted on the other thread, ask Pru for the further bonuses, if they refuse ask for a final letter, then go with your complaint to the FOS. Im sure I can post the relevant parts of the 1997 documentation for your complaint when I get home later.

The complaint is pre A day (april 1988) and it wasnt sold by Pru. Pru have no liability and the FOS have no jurisdiction