endowment short falls

[mrcabrach]

i have had a claims management company chasing me to claim for the £5000 short fall on my endowment policy they tell me that their success rate for wining claims is 91% and i have a near certain chance of getting it because at the time of takeing it out i was employed as a labourer
and had no connections with the financial world so for a small fee of £350 they will set the ball rolling and then they take 10% of any pay out.
I remember being told when i took it out by the broker

(There is a chance that it wont pay out as much as we predict but the chances of that is next to nothing)
what do you recon ?
thanks in advance for your replies

 

[FredFlintstone]

Do a little research and make the claim yourself. There's plenty of info out there to enable you to do it yourself and save the £350 + 10%.

A good place to start is moneysavingexpert and possibly consumeractiongroup.

Seriously, it shouldn't take more than a couple of letters and possibly the start of small claims proceedings if you're unlucky - £350 + 10% is a lot to pay for such little effort.

Regards

Fred

 

[JohnD]

£850 for writing your name onto their standard letter, and putting a stamp on it, is good business for them. What do they stand to lose?

That money could go into your own pocket if you send the letter yourself.

 

[empip]

No idea... But this looked like good advice...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1887292.stm

Of cases examined by the FOS, about 40% have been ruled in the claimant's favour - and they have received compensation.

Basically, you should have grounds to complain if:

- The product was unsuitable at the time it was sold.

- You did not understand what you were buying or the risks involved at the time you bought the policy

- The sale was inappropriate given your financial and personal circumstances at the time, for example, if you were told that your endowment would pay off your mortgage when you retired.


For any claim to be successful, the Ombudsman must determine that you have lost out as a result...

If you believe that were mis-sold an endowment, you should follow these steps:
Contact the firm who sold you the endowment
If you are dissatisfied with the way the complaint has been handled, or the company has turned down your request for compensation, you should then contact the Financial Ombudsman Service at the address below:
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR Tel: 0845 080 1800

You could be chucking good money after bad ... 60% overall compensation failure rate. May well be cheaper to go your own way initially - see the bold print above.

 

[oompah]

i have had a claims management company chasing me to claim for the £5000 short fall on my endowment policy they tell me that their success rate for wining claims is 91% and i have a near certain chance of getting it because at the time of takeing it out i was employed as a labourer
and had no connections with the financial world so for a small fee of £350 they will set the ball rolling and then they take 10% of any pay out.
I remember being told when i took it out by the broker

(There is a chance that it wont pay out as much as we predict but the chances of that is next to nothing)
what do you recon ?
thanks in advance for your replies

Hi we succesfully got some compensation for misselling of an endowment by doing it ourselves write to the people who sold you the endowment using registerd post.Include copies of the original projections and any imformation you think relevant.Unfortunately the ounus is on you to prove that you were given misleading info when deciding to buy your endowment.When did you buyit?Forgot to add you cannot claim for any shortfall only that the prediction for an endowment and any risks were not properly explained.By using registerd post in the first place they have to respond to your request into any miselling.

 

[JohnD]

Have a browse through here (a consumer's site, not industry-run)

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/endowments-miss-sold

and more on

http://search.moneysavingexpert.com...frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Thermo]

Send a letter to the company first with details of th claim. If that gets you nowhere then go through the omnsbudsman office for an initial claim. Very easy to do and costs nothing. They will look at your claim and if they find in your favour they will order the company to pay the compensation. ive done it on three occasions (twice for me...mug in my younger days and once for the in-laws) Worked on all occasions. You need to have some form of proof though to back up your claim.

 

[empip]

....It will calculate compensation based on comparing the performance of your endowment with a repayment mortgage over the same period....

£xxx offered as compo' - after the first scam, are you to get a fair deal? Once bitten, back for more of the same I reckon.
But then twill cost an arm and a leg to have the whole thing expertly analysed.
Looks like many of us are getting involved where we cannot really afford the exposure...

 

[gasmarkone]

I'll register another vote to do it yourself. We did and won. Not difficult, just keep writing letters. Lets face it, if you save £350 then have an extra week off work, you'll have earnt it!