Norwich Union has gone against the trend of other mortgage endowment providers such as Legal & General, Prudential and Standard Life and has confirmed it will time-bar mortgage endowment complaints.
Norwich Union has decided to write to all mortgage endowment policy holders to tell them they have 3 years to complain from the date of the first 'red' letter they receive. Norwich Union's chief actuary said, 'an open-ended complaints system where people could complain upto 15 years into the future about a policy sold 10 years ago is simply unfair to other with profits policyholders and could lead to compensation for the wrong reasons'.
Our View
We believe that more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon and making complaints, just to see if they will get anywhere. The real people that were mis-sold policies are now having to wait in massive administrative backlogs with the provider and also the Ombudsman.
We believe that Norwich Union's stance is prudent and a safeguard for the company as a whole, its shareholders and policyholders.