Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Endowment sortfall claims

[Totto]

Endowment sortfall claims

Like it says anyone have any experiance with such matters , i have part of my morgage covered by an endowment policy , and am wondering about the Tv adds claiming i am entitiled to conpensation
If anyone has had a claim then would you recomend any Company

[Edited on 20-3-2006 by Totto]

[guest1]

Originally posted by Totto
Endowment sortfall claims

Like it says anyone have any experiance with such matters , i have part of my morgage covered by an endowment policy , and am wondering about the Tv adds claiming i am entitiled to a Cash

If anyone has had a claim then would you recomend any Company

Experience in this thus far:
get all of your info together re:mortgage
get all of the letters sent by the company to you - including (most importantly) the FIRST letter they sent you - if you can find it.
Start a list with date sent details and date received details etcetera for your own record.
write off to the company with your concerns along the lines of you think you were mis-sold etcetera. IF that's what you believe.

Wait for them to send you form to fill in.
Do not be put off by this form and just go through questions one at a time. Take your time to read and understand the questions.
Get a copy of the form before you send it back.
Wait for them to tell you what the outcome is.
AFTER, they have returned a second time they may ask further questions, but keep at it.
You may then have opportunity to send details to ombudsman - the company will send you details when they send their decision to you.

FOR YOU INFO AND OTHERS:
THERE IS A TIME LIMIT ON GETTING YOUR CLAIM IN - EVEN THOUGH THE COMPANY MAY NOT HAVE INDICATED THIS TIME LIMIT. LETTERS SENT OUT BEFORE 2004 (I think but need to check the date) DID NOT NECESSARILY CONTAIN THIS TIME LIMIT BUT IT WAS ALREADY IN LAW THAT NO CLAIMS AFTER 2 YEARS OF HAVING BEEN TOLD. LETTER SENT AFTER THIS DATE DO INDICATE THE TIME LIMIT.

Get your claims in as soon as even if it is only a letter satying you intend to claim.

With the "no win no fee" companies you can get charged sumat like 20% of the final outcome - which takes the stress off you - but you still need to fill in the forms.

Search on tinternet.
e.g
step by step guide

Best of luck

[twpd]

TBH it would seem to be a bit of a lottery. I filed a claim against Abbeylife for my endowments. Fortunately, I no longer have an endowment mortgage but, a repayment one instead. I retained the endowments because they were worth less than I paid in and I wasn't going to throw them away at that stage - they may recover somewhat.

I put a claim in relating to when mine were taken out in '88 because the claims about returns were pure fantasy - at the time the interest rate was about 15% so some very optimistic claims about the growth were made at around 8-14%!!! Of course, history shows otherwise. I also put a claim in on the basis:

1. That it was not made clear to me that there was a significant risk or likelyhood that they would not acrue enough funds - in fact I opted for a low-medium risk policy on the basis that it was best for the long run.

2. The claims for the rate of return were unrealistic.

3. That I relied on professional advise from an "advisor" who was in fact not independent (turned out he work for Abbeylife but, didn't make it clear at the time)

Anyway - Abbeylife came back and basically said that they did not keep the paperwork going back so far and therefore were unable to act upon my claim! Unbelievable really. I put a complaint in to the financial Ombudsman but, he/she was unwilling to act because the complaint had rumbled on so long with it going back and forth between me & Abbey that I had fallen outside the time limits....Abbey dragged their heels for months at a time when it came to answering my letters...like 3-6 months for each letter.

Anway - the cheeky shysters now regularly send me letters inviting me to take out additional policies to make up for the shortfall in the existing ones! There's little chance of that happening - I now view the policies as a means of just saving some money.

I'd say go for it, document it all of course and make sure the endowment compay don't drag their heels to string things out. Be on them all the way.

Good luck!

[Totto]

Thank you

[guest1]

twpd - I can sympathise with that - got the runaround my self on an endowment.
Turns out the shyster who sold me the poicy closed and then restarted his business with new names etcetera.
I am still paying an amount into the policy for the same reasons as yourself - wanna keep it going and too much to lose.
Ombudsman said - sorry - company that sold it does not exist - but the company I'm paying too can keep taking the money aaargggh.

BTW - keep on at the ombudsman and keep asking for final final result - because the initial 3 decisions you receive are not actually by an ombudsman but by some office toerag acting on his behalf - and only the OMBUDSMAN has the final say.
Best of luck.

[lancisto]

I have the same problem, company now ceased trading but started under new name. You can still try and claim via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. fsc.org.uk aslong as the policy was taken out on or after 28 August 1988.
Sent my letter off this morning, don't hold up much hope, but you have to try.
Good luck

[Gizmo]

The FSA of late eighties altered the way endowments were sold, all advisors should have made it clear who they worked for and the type of advice given ie independent or not, a letter and business card should have been handed to you on their introduction explainign that status. Any proposal should have been accompanied by a review of the applicants financial status and clearly demonstrate that the advice given was suitable for the client and the risks explained. All proposals should have been accompanied by quotations based upon percentage growth rates determined by the FSA but could include illustrations of current maturity values. As well as this there should have been a section on "clients attitude to risk" which once again would be signed by the client.

As a former sales trainer at one of the largest insures i can say that in the vast majority of cases the proposers had the correct info explained to them when purchasing a mortgage but chose the policy that suited them. We offered 3 types of policy, full endowment, 50% endowment, 50% life cover and 20% endowment 80% life cover and 99 times out of 100 clients went for the cheapest option 20% version despite the salesmen trying his best to sell the full endowment as that would guarantee the mortgage and also give him a lot, lot more commission. Why would they mis-sell a policy giving them less money?? Most could only work of the past history of endowments and given the info at that time it would have been "best advice" to recommend endowment, with hindsight its easy to blame both them and the company.
Most of the big tied agent insurers, Pru, CIS, Pearl etc had that up and running in time for the introduction of the FSA, some Independents and smaller companies might not have.

[chrisw]

I've just got compensation out of the Abbey for an endowment taken out in 1985. It's not a lot but neither is my mortgage. I used a company called Keypoint endowment claims

http://www.keypointclaims.com/

As previously said there is quite a lot of form filling and you have to evidence how the endowment was mis-sold. Then there is the fee - 20%.

The company took all the hassle out of the claim but on reflection I could have done the job myself and been 20% better off.

This is a very useful link and does not cost you anything.

http://www.fscs.org.uk/consumer/FAQs/Endowment_claims/

Make the claim, if they say no then at least you tried.

My next job is to buy premium bonds with the compensation money - who knows!

[twpd]

Originally posted by guest1
twpd - I can sympathise with that - got the runaround my self on an endowment.
Turns out the shyster who sold me the poicy closed and then restarted his business with new names etcetera.
I am still paying an amount into the policy for the same reasons as yourself - wanna keep it going and too much to lose.
Ombudsman said - sorry - company that sold it does not exist - but the company I'm paying too can keep taking the money aaargggh.

BTW - keep on at the ombudsman and keep asking for final final result - because the initial 3 decisions you receive are not actually by an ombudsman but by some office toerag acting on his behalf - and only the OMBUDSMAN has the final say.
Best of luck.

Thanks for the advice Alan. I may revisit it - the problem for me now is that the I took the policies out so long ago - we're talking 18 years and it's very much a case of my word against that of the advisor who has long since retired (not sure if he is still alive). IIRC he claimed to be a self-eemployed consultant for Abbeylife...that may be the case but, he was effectively tied into Abbey when I look back at it.

I'm more inclinded to say "Fuggit" and just let it go now as I have plenty of other important issues vying for my limited time - accept that the payout is going to be low and look into other avenues to increase my savings. I was young when the policies were sold to me and rather less financially astute than I am now.

[Gizmo]

Originally posted by twpd
[Thanks for the advice Alan. I may revisit it - the problem for me now is that the I took the policies out so long ago - we're talking 18 years and it's very much a case of my word against that of the advisor who has long since retired (not sure if he is still alive). IIRC he claimed to be a self-eemployed consultant for Abbeylife...that may be the case but, he was effectively tied into Abbey when I look back at it.

I'm more inclinded to say "Fuggit" and just let it go now as I have plenty of other important issues vying for my limited time - accept that the payout is going to be low and look into other avenues to increase my savings. I was young when the policies were sold to me and rather less financially astute than I am now.

Abbey did have a self employed sales force mid/late Eighties, they were tied to Abbey and could only sell their policies AIR it was commission only, no basic and a lot of the salesmen i met weren't so bothered about what they sold, if its pre 88 FSA the sale won't have been documented after that it should have been, probably now microfiched, might be worth trying to get a copy of that. ( it was probably a unit linked endowment if I recall correctly.