Finance Industry News
Who is Working For Your Endowment Shortfall ?
(From: money.guardian.co.uk)
08/06/2005
Welcome to the new breed of "no-win, no-fee" claims firms. The slogans are the same as those employed by the personal injury specialists - "You could be owed thousands of pounds in compensation ..." "Get it right. Claim through us today" - but these companies are not looking to sign up people who have tripped over broken paving slabs or been hurt in car accidents. They are after people whose financial health has suffered as a result of taking out an endowment policy.During the past year or so there has been an explosion in the number of firms offering to help people obtain compensation for mis-sold endowments. They typically promise to do all the legwork - firing off complaint letters, hassling the companies when they do not respond and so on - in return for a cut of any compensation pay-out.
The tricks banks and insurers can use to deny policyholders what is rightfully theirs were under the spotlight again last week after Abbey was fined £800,000 for mishandling endowment complaints. It is now reviewing the cases of 50,000 customers who were refused compensation.
For some potential endowment mis-selling victims, paying someone to go into battle on their behalf is likely to prove appealing - but with so many complaint handling firms out there, where do you start? How much do they charge? And is not better to do it yourself, so you do not have to hand over any of your winnings?
