Did your Advisor tell you Endowments are risky?

chezzers

My wife was sold her endowment in the late 80's by an estate agent based mortgage adviser. She was told that historically endowments had done very well due to higher inflation/interest rates in previous years, although that would be no indication of future performance. She knows this because it was written down on her notes from her adviser. I believe that some advisers possibly didn't stress the negatives as much as they promoted the possible gains.
PS Her adviser also advised an endowment at the time because of reduced costs, although he also advised regular financial consultations.

Leon_W

I bought an Endowment extention off the internet the other week, does that count ? The adviser did warn me that they were fairly risky and not to expect "Ron Jeremy" performance overnight.

The "endowment" subsequently turned out to be toxic and perished quite badly after little use.

I have exhausted Anne Summers complaints procedures and received a deadlock letter. What are my options ?

NeilQuinn

Trying_to_be_good wrote: »

Crazy Saver
My Financial Adviser was my Dad - and he's not had a single endowment mis-selling claim against him despite having sold them all through the 80s and 90s. Because he's very good at his job, and tells his clients about the good and bad points of whatever they're interested in. Lucky me! My endowment pays out in 2015, but I'll have paid off as much capital as possible by then, so it will be extra cash when it pays out.

I'll be perfectly honest here & say that I did as well. I didn't have any mis-selling claims against me for years and last year, I had a ruck of them. Apart from one client who told downright lies, all of them have been upheld in favour of the client...but not against me. The company always paid out after I pointed out to them that they supplied us with reams of glossy graphs & charts, showing how wonderful their endowment policies were. In addition to that, the majority of those clients have since come back to me for further mortgage advice. We had to clearly document the risks and the client was always given a copy of our recommendation.

Retired_I.F.A.

"The company always paid out after I pointed out to them that they supplied us with reams of glossy graphs & charts, showing how wonderful their endowment policies were"

Which of course had naff all to do with paying compensation.

If your stupid enough to think it did how stupid is your advice today?

Crazy_Saver

dunstonh wrote: »

There are an awful lot of advisers out there that dont hide from the truth. Both now and back then. Remember you only tend to hear about the negatives.

I hear you dunstonh, and I couldn't agree more. You seem to think that I am on the negative, I'm really not.

I have sung the praises of yourself and many others on these boards countless times. I would never have been able to take my case as far as I have without you and the other brilliant advisors here.:A

I am just trying to get a better perspective on the whole endowment selling story.

As I mentioned in my original post, I felt that because I am in the middle of a very long case with the FOS, I may be only hearing the bad points and I'm looking for the good ones so that I can put my own ideas/thoughts in order.

Regards

Crazy Saver

dunstonh

I hear you dunstonh, and I couldn't agree more. You seem to think that I am on the negative, I'm really not.

Not at all. I feel sympathy with both yours and mayb's cases. You look at some cases and you think they dont stand a chance yet they get upheld but then you see other cases and think they will be upheld easily but then get rejected.

The lack of consistency fustrates those in financial services just as much as it does those on the other side.

Crazy_Saver

dunstonh wrote: »

Not at all. I feel sympathy with both yours and mayb's cases. You look at some cases and you think they dont stand a chance yet they get upheld but then you see other cases and think they will be upheld easily but then get rejected.

The lack of consistency fustrates those in financial services just as much as it does those on the other side.

Thanks for that dunstonh.

You remind me of a big, comfy chair. Reliable, safe and secure;)

treliac

Crazy_Saver wrote: »

Thanks for that dunstonh.

You remind me of a big, comfy chair. Reliable, safe and secure;)

I don't know what dunstonh will make of that analogy Crazy Saver - he's only in his mid 30s!

Crazy_Saver

treliac wrote: »

I don't know what dunstonh will make of that analogy Crazy Saver - he's only in his mid 30s!

People in their 30s can be safe, comfy and secure as well as everything else that goes with being young!

He (I'm assuming gender of course) has the capacity to be very rich as well!

Sounds like a good catch to me:T


I'm sure dunstonh also has a fantastic sense of humour:p


Shame I'm so old;)

dubsey

We bought our first house in 1994 and took an endowment through a FA that was a friend of my FIL (some friend). He told us that the endowment would pay the mortgage and we'd be left with a large lump sum at the end. We never had any reason to doubt the information, until we had a letter about 4 years later telling us there was a shortfall and we would need to increase our endowment payments by an awful lot.

We changed our mortgage to a SVR repayment, changed to First Direct and even though everyone said we were mad not to have a fixed rate and an endowment we are now happy with the choices WE made and not what we were advised to do.