Think You Were Missold Your Endowment Complain Now!!!! [CLOSED]

magnum9

I am furious with my IFA.

He says I am time barred as my complaint is relating to an endowment sold in 1983, and that The limitation Act of 1980 section14B says legal action can not be brought after expiration of 15 years!

Am I really time barred and totally prevented from making a complaint?

Or is he trying to block and intimidate me?

dunstonh

magnum9 wrote:

I am furious with my IFA.

He says I am time barred as my complaint is relating to an endowment sold in 1983, and that The limitation Act of 1980 section14B says legal action can not be brought after expiration of 15 years!

Am I really time barred and totally prevented from making a complaint?

Or is he trying to block and intimidate me?

He is correct, although the reasoning may or may not be accurate and it perhaps could have been worded better. As the advice was taken before 1988, they are totally within their rights to refuse any compensation.

Violinist

I used the Which site to help submit a mis-selling claim for an endowment I was sold in 1986. I filled in the questionnaire as best I could although I have very little of the paperwork now. I have a good claim because I had a cautious attitude to risk and it wasn't explained to me that I might not pay off my mortgage (in fact it was strongly suggested that I would be in the money).

The financial adviser has rejected the claim on the grounds that they don't have any paperwork either, and therefore have "no evidence" that I was mi-sold. In other words, they are calling me a liar.

Can they do that? Can they just conveniently lose the paperwork and then absolve themselves of all responsibility?

What's the best next step? Should I appeal to the Ombudsman? Any tips on doing this?

magnum9

I am not convinced that just because my endowment was pre 1988, that I am excluded from compensation.

The reason I say this is that I too have now read the which? website. It appears to suggest that pre-1988 endowment misselling CAN have have redress - so who is right, and what can the many thousands like me do?

I am reluctant to just say "oh well..." - as that IFA has (just to add salt to the wounds) been creaming off commission payments throughout the 20+ term - he must have made an absolute killing and be totally laughing at the rest of us.

It stinks.

It absolutely stinks!

Any ideas on what I and others in my position should do next?

Cheers!

dunstonh

Can they do that? Can they just conveniently lose the paperwork and then absolve themselves of all responsibility?

In the past, paperwork would only be held on for 6 years. That was deemed sufficient.

A better reason for refusal is that your endowment was sold pre April 1988. No other reason needs to be given.

I am not convinced that just because my endowment was pre 1988, that I am excluded from compensation.

Why not? Take a look at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/consumer/01_WARNINGS/endowments/mn_time.html

Look at the section called: I was advised to take out my policy before 29 April 1988 - can I complain?

I am reluctant to just say "oh well..." - as that IFA has (just to add salt to the wounds) been creaming off commission payments throughout the 20+ term - he must have made an absolute killing and be totally laughing at the rest of us.

If you dont want that IFA getting the renewals, get the policy transferred to another IFA. However, most endowment renewals are in the region of 20p to £3 pm. So you wont be taking much away from them.

JohnG

My (our) first endowments were taken out before 1988 but when I rang the ombudsman originally for advice (FOS if I remember correctly) the first guy I spoke to sounded very encouraging especially when I confirmed it was with the Royal Sun Alliance for some reason - in fact I recall he guessed it would be them - what does that tell you? He seemed to think I was still in with a good chance for compensation. Alas of course this didn't happen.

It truly seems like you are fighting against everything and everyone to get anywhere - it really is soul destroying!

So, whilst there may well be some who win through it's sadly likely to be 1 in a thousand (that's probably being generous).

I gave up hope on getting anything, so instead followed advice of ensuring we covered the shortfall (£10,000 to 12,000) by putting all our savings, such as they are (£8,000) into an offset mortage which I optimistically hoped would do the trick and maybe even allow us to have some of the savings back - then, (Sorry if you've already read this on another thread) I (We) receive a letter from a company we've never heard of (Phoenix) telling us we are effectively going to be a further £2,500 short!!! I'm still trying to recover from this latest development - I simply cannot believe this can be allowed, in fact I will probably write to our local MP, it might not do any good but I don't see what else I can do? I don't have any faith in the FOS or FSA or whoever it is?

The whole B****y thing stinks from top to bottom - you can be sure the companies involved look after themselves first and foremost, all the customers get are the few scraps that get left over if we are lucky. Apparently though, we should be content and accept the situation after all, silly us, we didn't take proper advise in the beginning - Doh! :mad:

If nothing else, you know you are not alone in how you have been treated and the way you feel cheated - it's a pity we couldn't all get together and kick some !!!!!!! :cool:

John G

magnum9 wrote:

I am not convinced that just because my endowment was pre 1988, that I am excluded from compensation.

The reason I say this is that I too have now read the which? website. It appears to suggest that pre-1988 endowment misselling CAN have have redress - so who is right, and what can the many thousands like me do?

I am reluctant to just say "oh well..." - as that IFA has (just to add salt to the wounds) been creaming off commission payments throughout the 20+ term - he must have made an absolute killing and be totally laughing at the rest of us.

It stinks.

It absolutely stinks!

Any ideas on what I and others in my position should do next?

Cheers!

Poppy9

Good luck with your MP. I had a nice letter back from some Parliamentary committee saying sorry but it's a shame you bought it 1985 basically.

As I previously mentioned I have the original letter setting out the Repayment and Endowment mortgages side by side. Endowment cost more but it had a £17k surplus as bottom line. Standard life don't want to know as it was bought from IFA who was part of a now defunct EA.

I too have just been making plans to pay off shortfall but it's appalling they way we have been treated.

EdInvestor

Try the Small Claims Court.That's something the RSA group could look into.Perhaps they could do a test case?

PAPADAK

Taken from:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

"I was advised to take out my policy before 29 April 1988 - can I complain?

The advice and sales of certain financial products, including mortgage endowments, did not become regulated until 29 April 1988. Some firms agreed to allow the Ombudsman to look at complaints about advice given before this date on a voluntary basis - however, not all firms did. If the firm you are complaining about signed up to the voluntary arrangements, the firm will handle your complaint in accordance with the complaint handling rules, including telling you when you can refer your complaint to the Ombudsman.

If the firm did not sign up to the voluntary arrangements, you can still complain to the firm - but they are not obliged to follow the complaint handling procedures. This also means that if you cannot resolve your complaint with the firm, you will not be able to take your complaint to the Ombudsman."

You can check if the firm you are complaining about signed up to the voluntary arrangements by phoning the Financial Ombudsman Service on tel: 0845 080 1800

There is additional information on its website at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk


- SO MY QUESTION HAS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE SUCCEEDED WITH PRE-APRIL 1988 CLAIMS, AS THE ABOVE DOES NOT MAKE HAPPY READING. WE HAVE JUST SUBMITTED OURS (TAKEN OUT IN 1987) TO THE ABBEY ....

DOES ANYONE IF THE ABBEY SIGNED UP TO "voluntary arrangements" OR NOT?

WISH US LUCK AND YOUR ANSWERS OR HELP WITH THESE QUESTIONS WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL PLEASE .... THANKS VERY MUCH IN ADVANCE

canny_yorkshireman_2

Superwoman wrote:

I consider that I was mis-sold my endowment policy in 1983, can anyone advise me as to whether I would be able to make a claim as it's such a long time ago, I have been given conflicting advice regarding this matter

superwoman hope not to be too dissappointing but any endowment taken out before 1989 is not covered by the financial reglulartory body so you have to prove to the insurance company that you were sold there product without proper advice or negligent to the risks. the other problem is if you were sold the product from a broker who acted for the insurance company because now you have to get redress from the broker and not the insurace company which has under performed and again you have to prove that the broker has given you bad advice. I am in the same position as you but the broker has ceased trading and I would have to persue the directors in the small claims court to get any kind of compensation which is not viable when you take into consideration the risk of court costs etc. good luck and hope this helps.