Endowment Misselling Complaints Deadline

System · 10 March 2004 at 5:05PM

I complained to the Brittannia Builsdng society re my endowment who said I wasn't entitled to anything but I could complain to the Ombudsman within 6 months - that was Oct 2002

Unfortunateley I never got round to it because basically I wasn't sure what to do - Am I too late now do you think?

System · 10 March 2004 at 11:03PM

I made a claim about a year ago - it took about 6 months for them to decide that the claim was valid. They look through all the documents they hold on the purchase and request you send them all that you hold and tou have to complete a form. The cruz of it is whether you were made aware of the level of risk. In my case it was clear from the paperwork that the seller did not even discuss with me the option of a replayment mortgage and the endowment was sold as being certain of returning the amount "planned" - by smoothing out the peaks and troughs of the stock market. In settlement I accepted around £2000 - which was the amount that they calculated buying the endowment in preference to a repayment had "cost" me over the life of the product. What it does not compensate me for is the fact that the product will not reach its "planned" figure. Anyway - on balance I am now reasonably happy - but would have prefferred to have been advised to have a replayment from the start !

System · 11 March 2004 at 11:26AM

We have two endowments on our mortgage both under performing. One matures 2006 and the other 2009 which is two years after my husband retires. We contacted the broker who sold my husband the first policy. Basically they weren't interested and said my husband was told of the risk etc etc but didn't back this up with any evidence, they also referred us to the financial services ombudsman. We wrote to the FSO and received a reply back saying we weren't entitled to any compensation due to some act or other not being in place at the time, following this letter we read an article in the Mail that quoted the FSO as saying the fact the endowment was sold prior to a certain date has no relevance and you may still have a claim. We wrote again to the FSO but have received another letter saying we still don't have a case and once again quoted various financial acts and to get advise from the Citizens Advice Bureau to establish whether or not we have a case to sue the broker. We did request a copy of our endowment file from the broker but this was never sent to us - is this worth pursuing again with the broker? Any advise will be gratefully received.

terrierlady · 11 March 2004 at 12:50PM

::)this address may help ?we were 2 sold endowments before watershed of 1988 (2 infact ) and the firm has now ceased trading although later opened up in another name, so we have 2 problems. they told us after the first letter of complaint to contact the;
The Financial Services Authority
Departed Firms Unit
25, The North Colonnade
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5 HS
I send off yesterday so await reply,complaints letter can be downloaded from the"Which" site.

jaffa · 11 March 2004 at 3:20PM

I have downloaded the info from the Which site in preparation to make a complaint re mis-selling.

I was sold my endowment in 1989 and therefore am finding it hard to remember exactly what was or wasn't said at the time. I do know that there was no investigation into my finances or discussion over my attitude to "risk-taking".

Is it still worth me "having a go" anyway?

sylblake · 12 March 2004 at 12:53AM

We were sold a unit linked endowment through our Estate Agent with Winterthur Life (formerly Provident Life). We wrote to them asking for compensation because of the shortfall and were told that we didnt have a case because when we were first advised a couple of yrs ago of the shortfall we failed to act. We didnt do anything at that time because the shortfall wasnt that much and we couldnt afford it. Eventually the shortfall was great and the endowment cost was huge so we switched to repayment and cancelled endowment. We would have been over retirement age when the endowment paid out which wasnt explained to us when we took it out. Could we still take our case to one of those companies that take it up for you and charge commission or are we too late.

payless · 12 March 2004 at 12:59PM

The fact tahts there's a shortfall is not a valid reason for a complaint-
not being aware that it could happen, not aware of risk / type of investment, not consistant with your risk profile , taking over retirement age are all possible reasons for complaint.

make sure any rejection is in writing - so if applicable you can persue with regulators.

Why pay commission to another firm- believe many just use the standard forms anyway

use the
which site
http://www.endowmentaction.co.uk/

and look at http://www.fool.co.uk/news/foolseyeview/2004/fev040311c.htm?ref=emailweeklyhtml

and regulators

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/consumer/whats_new/endowments/index.html

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

System · 12 March 2004 at 4:05PM

We brought 3 endowments between 1991 and 1995 and were never offered any alternative, or advised that they might not pay off teh mortgage. We got the first warning letter about these and then the second which showed them to be performing worse than the first letter We panicked and cashed them in with the companies getting back a lot less than we paid in. (Young and not very financially wise...)

Can anyone advise whether these endowments would be too young to claim on?

Thanks

sylblake · 12 March 2004 at 11:36PM

Thanks payless, the only reason I was going to use a company was because I feel completely bogged down with it all and it has been hard work just rearranging our debt, had been living off credit cards because of outgoings on mortgage therefore, in an ever increasing spiral of debt. Having put 3 kids though uni as well. Now thanks to this site have halted this, have money in Ing (ok not mine but owed on 0 per cent c/c's) and gaining interest on it. Have had to take out repayment mortgage for fifteen yrs but have equity in house so not too much of a problem whilst working. Just dont know whether to forget the whole thing or try and take it further. Have also lost lot of pension to Equitable Life so fed up with it all. Now am on an even keel thanks to this site. Will give it all thought, it is just the amount of time it takes when you are working as well. Thanks for the advice, will buy you a drink at Martins party if you are there, you have given us advice before.

payless · 13 March 2004 at 11:11AM

sylblake-
don't think you will find the process much different whether using a firm - or using the which route- they both just generate forms that need filling.

Endowment Misselling Complaints Deadline

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