Endowments: It's wrong to assume they pay planned value at maturity isn't it ?

Question

I've tried companies who tell me there is no basis for compensation and the sellers won't play ball. What options do I have ?
Companies are Alba Life (formerly LAS) and Abbey Life started 1986 & 1995 repsectively - I've now sold the Abbey out of frustration as relevant company and 3rd parties say i have no basis for a claim !

Answer 1

Endowment policies are no longer worth the paper they're written on these days in the current economic climate. Any financial advisor worth his salt will steer you well clear of them.

When you take out a policy, there is NO guarantee that you will make the policy value, and there is no compensation if it fails to make target. You'll probably find this in the small print somewhere.

Sorry, but you have no claim for compensation.

Answer 2

absolutely. The whole thing has been an astonishing example of gross mismanagement. The way mine worked out, I could have got better interest from a building society and yet it's supposed to be managed by mega-brain city banker types, playing the markets for the best possible returns. It's a total con.
Basically what's happened is that they rode the stock market right down and then, instead of buying shares cheap and riding them back up again, they dumped everything at a loss and switched to Government gilts (ie they loaned money to the Government at a guaranteed rate of return). But so many people wanted to do that, that the rate of return plunged so they screwed the customer again. And, somehow, they couldn't see that coming.

Answer 3

it's true because of unpredictable world economies