endowment but not mortgage

haynrich

Hi all if this is not int he right place can it be moved please. I took out a policy which i was told was an endowment. I was 16-17 years old and i paid £12.00 per month over 12 years to get my money back plus profit. As i say i was told by the collectors it was an endowment so please correct me if i am wrong. Anway to cut a long story short i was expecting a good return and i was told it would be good but over the 12 years i got my money back plus just over £100 extra. I was told it would have bonus etc... but when i called and spoke to them they just said as it was a hard time fincially that they cancelled bonus... i have all the paper work to to me it is pretty double dutch...it was with royal london but also changed names a few times while i was with the policy? what goes wrong why do you get promised the world and get so little return? is this endowment or now... yes i was naive and young at the time so dont get on about me not understanding it properly.
hayley

turbobob

Yes that would be an endowment (an industrial branch policy as the payments were collected in person).

I think being promised the world was to get you to take out the policy Whats gone wrong is that the economy has changed over the last few years and the investments haven't performed as well as expected.

haynrich

is there any reclaim thing going on with these do you know??? or is it just mortgages? thanks for clearing that up for me i bet i seem a right nerd lol....
hayley

dunstonh

These old style "savings" endowments were common place and the main long term regular contribution plan. Whilst they are obsolete today that is not a reason to complain.

They used to pay out 2-3 times the amount paid but times change and this style of plan is a victim of that. That is not grounds for complaint. It would would be similar to saying that you bought a betamax video recorder and its now obsolete and you want your money back.

turbobob

Its mortgage endowments that have been the subject of media attention and claims companies, although that's finally dropping off as most ME complaints are now time barred.

A savings endowment doesn't have the same level of risk as you are not relying on it to pay off a debt at the end of the term. To be honest, complaining about the performance (it didn't do as well as you expected) is a non starter. These complaints are dismissed with something like the above explanation about the economy and investment performance etc. If you feel you were mis-sold the policy (e.g. you were "guaranteed" it would be worth a certain amount, and you can prove this) then you can complain about that.

maninthestreet

Did this endowment provide life assurance as well? If so, it could be deemed this was mis-sold to you, as a 16 year old with no dependents does not require life assurance.

turbobob

Savings endowments normally have the minimum life assurance required to be a qualifying policy. You cannot have an endowment policy without life assurance.

haynrich

i am not sure if it had life assurance i will have a look at the paperwork that i have and see if i can find more information. i am only asking with all talk of endowments i am not saying i have been conned or anything just asking if it is the same or a differemt thing completely with it not being a mortgage.. thanks all for your advice and help.
hayley

Dick_here

£12 every 4 weeks paid over 12 years which pays out only £100 over the premiums paid in does seem very, if not formally excessively, poor value though.

dunstonh

maninthestreet wrote: »

Did this endowment provide life assurance as well? If so, it could be deemed this was mis-sold to you, as a 16 year old with no dependents does not require life assurance.

As mentioned higher up, savings endowments are different to mortgage endowment with respect to life cover. They have a much smaller amount and its the figure to which bonuses are added.

Most of these plans were sold by tied agents and the requirement for tied agents was to sell the best product in there product range to meet the need. In this case its a Royal London policy (Ex refuge or united friendly probably). So, it would have been sold by a tied agent.

If the tied rep didnt offer a PEP or regular contribution unit trust or had a minimum premium on these of £100pm (which many did) then the savings endowment was the right choice for them to make.