The Consumers Association (CA), has responded to claims made by financial advisers and insurance companies that many endowment mis-selling complaints were speculative i.e. "jumping on the bandwagon" of real complaints. The CA responded by saying of people that they surveyed, 86% were not told that their endowment may noy pay off their mortgage and 76% were not asked about their attitude towards risk.
Our View
As with anything, mass complaints, claim or compensation push, there are bound to be claims that are not genuine. Likewise, there may even be genuine complaints that do not get compensation.
The only thing that you can have is an independent judge, which we have with the Financial Services Ombudsman who look at each case individually. The ongoing problem is that commissions and commissions bias will always create potential for mis-selling. The most effective route would be flat fee or flat rate commissions for products.
We have argued this for years - but it is both the adviser, the insurance company and the consumer that do not really like fee based advice.
Learn more about endowment mortgages and the alternatives in Mortgage Crazy.com.
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