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Claims About Mis-Sold Endowments ::

It was in 1999 that the regulator (the Financial Services Authority) initially warned the endowment mortgage industry that its marketing regulations were inadequate. By 2000, little had been done and the FSA was forced to take action. Several firms were fined and forced to pay compensation to policyholders. So far, this has amounted to over £5 million in fines and over £650 million in compensation payments.

If policyholders received unsuitable advice when buying their endowment policy and are worse off than they would have been taking out a repayment mortgage they are entitled to compensation. Evidence suggests that over half of all policyholders believe their policies were mis-sold, but fewer than 6% of policyholders have so far made a claim for compensation. There are strict time limits on making an endowment claim for compensation, suggesting that urgent action is needed to ensure that the complaints process is better understood and more accessible to policyholders.

Many companies have not handled complaints fairly and the FSA has intervened repeatedly on this issue. Even so, for some companies the Financial Ombudsman Service (the appeals body for consumer complaints) is finding in favour of the policyholder in over 50% of cases. The most difficult types of policies to claim are the ones sold via IFAs before 1988.

To whom should I go if I want to complain?