Sell endowments

Death bond TLPI’s may be banned by FSA

Sell endowments — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:20:18 +0000

Death Bonds, also known as traded life policy investments (TLPI’s), should not be sold to UK investors according to the FSA. They also warned that restrictions would soon be introduced to prevent these products from being sold to the majority of retail investors. TLPI’s are known as death bonds since they invest in life insurance [...]

Fall in Mortgage Endowment Complaints to Financial Ombudsman

Sell endowments — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:31:01 +0000

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is reporting a fall of 44 per cent in the number of mortgage endowment complaints in it’s Annual Review. For the first time since the Service was set up mortgage endowments aren’t the most complained about investment, although they still receive large number of cases. The fall in complaints is [...]

Equitable Life compensation – many policyholders will lose out

Sell endowments — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:00:27 +0000

Some have described the £1.5b compensation payout for Equitable Life Policyholders as a victory, however the truth is many policyholders will be left with major losses. The Treasury announced that nearly half the payment would go to 37,000 policyholders “who suffered most from their losses” and it’s predicted this group will review approximately £16,500 each. [...]

Scottish Life letter could lead to endowment claims

Sell endowments — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:14:37 +0000

There are warnings from financial advisers that a letter sent by Scottish Life to clients with maturing endowments could lead to endowment claims. The letter explains that Scottish Life is investigating with-profits endowments sold between 1988 and 1995 due to the methods used by advisers to calculate rates. The letter asks client for a copy [...]

Prudential still focused on Asia

Sell endowments — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:56:44 +0000

It’s clear that Asia is still the focus of attention for the Prudential and despite the AIA fiasco, CEO Tidjane Thiam still seems to think it was a good idea. Better than expected profits and a lower cost of the failed takeover of AIA allowed Prudential to raise half-year dividends by 5 per cent. Cost [...]

Equitable Life policyholders get fresh hope for compensation

Sell endowments — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:06:18 +0000

Equitable Life policyholders look more likely to get compensation after a coalition Government announcement. They’ve been fighting for nearly 10 years and two years ago were encouraged when the Parliamentary Ombudsman found regulatory failure and promised they would soon be compensated. However the fight continued and they were hampered by the secretive nature of the [...]

Prudential rights issue for AIA deal soon

Sell endowments — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:59:06 +0000

It now looks like Prudential will launch the £14bn rights issue it needs to buy AIA by next week. The FSA had blocked purchase of AIG’s Asian Insurance arm (AIA) due to concerns the deal would leave Prudential with insufficient capital to satisfy IDG rules. The deal has been restructured with AIG agreeing to reduce [...]

Prudential and Scottish Amicable endowment payouts fall despite profit growth

Sell endowments — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:39:02 +0000

Despite an 16 per cent rise in the £61 billion Prudential with profits fund, mortgage endowment policies values have fallen again. Their Scottish Amicable policies have also fallen. The company reported that a 25 year, £50 per month policy maturing in May will pay out £35,834, a fall from £37,738 for a similar policy maturing [...]

Standard Life Pension Fund Customers misled about investment risks

Sell endowments — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:16:26 +0000

Misleading marketing material for the Standard Life Pension Sterling Fund attracted a £2.45m fine from the FSA. The 98,000 retail pension customers invested in the Fund risked unexpected capital losses as a result of the material. The “serious systems and control failings” allowed for the misleading claim that the pension fund was wholly invested in [...]

Standard Life Endowments fall even shorter

Sell endowments — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:16:06 +0000

Standard Life announced that 97 percent of its mortgage endowment policies will fail to pay off the mortgages they were supposed to cover. An example of expected returns sees a £50 per month 25 year Standard Life mortgage endowment maturing now paying out £26,869, a fall of 13.5 percent on the £31,066 an equivalent policy [...]