The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has had to introduce a new telephone system to cope with almost 3,000 calls each month regarding endowments. The FSCS looks into cases where the original adviser or firm is no longer trading or has become insolvent.
The calls received by the FSCS have resulted in around 150 actual claims per month. These are in addition to the ones handled by the Financial Ombudsman Service, where consumers had already made complaints to their advisers but were not happy with the outcome.
The FOS acts as an independent body to review all of the evidence and make the decision on whether or not the endowment was mis-sold.
Our View:
If you believe you were mis-sold an endowment policy you should first contact the adviser or company that sold you the policy. If they are still trading then they will investigate your complaint and should provide you with their final decision in around 8 weeks. You should be aware that many companies have huge backlogs of complaints and some investigations are taking around 16 weeks. If this is the case your adviser will write to you with regular progress updates.
If you have not received your final decision by the 8 weeks deadline you have the right to refer your case to the FOS for their decision. The FOS will only look at your case if you have first made a complaint to the company or adviser that sold you the policy.
If you cannot find your adviser or they are no longer trading you should contact the FSCS to see if they have been declared 'in default'. This basically means that the company could not meet its liabilities and has ceased trading. If this is the case, the FSCS should look at your case, instead of the FOS.
If you can't find out who to contact about your endowment complaint, contact us and we will do our best to help. Alternatively, download our fact sheets covering mortgage endowments and making complaints.
Learn more about Endowments in Mortgage Crazy.com.
Worried about your endowment? Need help or advice? Visit our Help Zone to find out about all the different ways we can help you.
Free Fact Sheet For Registered Users - Endowment Mortgage - Don't Panic.