UK ENDOWMENT CLAIM GROUNDS

We represent an independent network of qualified actuaries, lawyers, financial advisers and insurance experts who work together as a specialist team when necessary to settle endowment mortgage misseling claims against life companies, banks, solicitors and insurance brokers. Our professionals will only deal with an endowment claim on a risk free no win no fee basis and if the claim is unsuccessful for any reason they will make no charge whatsoever. You will not be asked to fund or finance your application in any respect and you will not have to buy insurance or take out any loans. Our clients never pay any charges unless the claim is settled successfully. If you would like to speak to a specialist about an endowment complaint just complete the contact form or call the helpline and one of our experts will discuss your case without any further obligation.

A responsible financial advisor should have made detailed enquiries about your current and prospective personal circumstances and should have considered your attitude to risk which would have entailed the adviser explaining in detail about how monies paid to an insurance company are invested on behalf of the policy holder. Failure to provide detailed advice can lead to a valid endowment claim. An adviser should have explained that investments can go down as well as up, dependent on the financial climate of the stock market throughout the life of the policy. If you bought your policy before 1 January 1995 you should have been given product particulars including charges and cash-in values for the first five years and if you bought your policy after 1 January 1995 you should have been given a Key Features document detailing fees and charges and their effect over the longer term.

There are many reasons why this type of financial arrangement may have been unsuitable which can give rise to an endowment claim for compensation. Some of the more common reasons why this method of repayment may not have been suitable which may give rise to an application for endowment mortgage misselling include :

• Alternative methods for repaying including straight re-payments or a bank loan were not discussed or were not discussed in sufficient detail to ensure that an informed decision could be made.
• No information was given about the mechanism for investments made by the life insurance company and in particular that there was no explanation about the risks involved and that the policy may not return sufficient cash at maturity to pay off the loan.
• The adviser should have explained that this method of repayment is a long-term commitment and should have explained that if an insurance policy is a cashed in early there can be substantial losses in regards to the payments made into the fund to date. This arises when the policy is cashed in because the life insurance company deducts all expenses associated with the policy including the broker’s commission for sale of the policy which can exceed the first year’s premiums.
• Misleading information may have been given in order to persuade you to sign a contract and in particular assurances may have been made that the policy was guaranteed to pay off the mortgage loan.
• If payment of premiums was anticipated to continue after retirement the adviser should have ensured that the policyholder would have sufficient income to meet the payments.

A particularly despicable practice used by some financial advisers was to persuade a policy holder to cash in an existing policy and thereby suffer a financial loss to the fund before taking out a new policy for the full amount of a new loan. This ensured that the broker received an enhanced commission at the expense of the client and is an illicit practice known as ‘churning’.