Response to Anyone won claim for bad advice on sale of Endowment?

First of all look carefully at the original written quotation. There should be a copy of the terms and conditions and complaints procedures. Some firms print this in very small, grey, letters on the back of their letters. This should tell you how to proceed.

All investment advisors or tied agents (agents giving you advice who can only sell the products of the company he works for) have a fiduciary duty to give "Best Advice". If they have given you advice as they have here which is not of the best then you have recall to the PIA (The Personal Investment Authority) If it was a Building Society employee who gave you that advice then the first point of action is to write to the Manager of the branch involved. They have to have a formal complaints procedure which they are obligated to disclose to you. If you don't get any help there, write direct to the compliance department at their head office. Failing that, write directly to the PIA with copies of all your correspondence.

If it was an Independent Financial Advisor who gave you the advice then a similar procedure applies. Most large firms of Consultants have Compliance Departments, and all have a legal duty to give you best advice. Find out from them if they are truly independent or in fact are tied to only one Insurance Company as are some banks and building societies. If you have problems or need technical advice on what should have happened with your endowment policy and the returns you could have expected, go to an Independent Financial Advisor who will work for you on a fee paying basis. Even if you have to pay a fee it could be well worth it when set against such a large potential shotfall in your endowment policy. One important point though, don't let anyone tell you to cash in your endowment policy to take out a new one. If you must get rid of your policy there is a market in 2nd hand endowment policies. Be careful also about accepting any advice to take out another endowment policy, these pay a lot of commission to the selling agent. Keep on a fee paying basis and ensure that any top up policy is on a nil commission basis with any possible commission being reinvested in the policy.

There have been some horror stories, but there have also been a lot of stories where compensation has been granted, some big sums have been paid out. I hope you manage to get somewhere with the BS.

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