Mr & Mrs V found us via Facebook and came to us to see if their Free Standing Additional Voluntary Contribution’s (FSAVC’s) with Abbey Life were mis-sold. They explained to us that they were both Teachers and that they both had some policy information in that they had paperwork with policy numbers and knew that both plans had started in 1996 when paying £40 per month, which increased to £66 per month in 1997. They also knew that they had stopped paying into these plans in the early 2000’s.
As we had sufficient information from Mr & Mrs V, we were able to compose a detailed letter of complaint which we sent to Abbey Life.
Regulated financial businesses such as Abbey Life are permitted 56 days (8 weeks) to investigate mis selling complaint but due to the nature and complexity of these types of complaints, most firms usually take longer than this to resolve these.
On receipt of our letters of complaints, Abbey Life wrote to us requesting that Mr & Mrs V complete questionnaires to assist with the investigations. These types of questionnaires can sometime appear a little daunting, but we complete these with our clients to make this part of the process as easy as possible and to avoid the possibility of being tripped up by any of the more technical questions.
We held detailed conversations with Mr & Mrs V about the FSAVC’s and their circumstances at the time they took the polices out, we then sent the completed questionnaires back to Abbey Life to assist them in the investigation the complaints.
Just less than 8 weeks after our initial letter of complaint, Abbey Life provided us with their decisions on both complaints. They said they were upholding the complaints but neither Mr or Mrs V had suffered any financial loss as a result of taking out the policies. On investigation of this, it was established that Abbey Life had carried out a fund comparison calculation as they believed the investment funds within the FSAVCs carried too much risk and they didn’t match Mr or Mrs V’s attitudes to risk when they took the policies out. Abbey Life had essentially ignored the critical mis- sale of the FSAVCs.
The cases were passed to our General Manager who immediately set to work on writing up appeals to be sent to Abbey Life. He explained to them how they had simply ignored the crucial part of the complaint letters and it was clear to all that these FSAVCs should not have been sold to Teachers and that they had suffered significant financial loss because of the poor advice.
We had given Abbey Life fourteen days to respond to the appeals, but it became clear after nearly three weeks that they were not responding. Our admin team sent strongly worded chase letters explaining we would exercise the right of referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service if they did not respond immediately.
A few days later, we received responses from the same case handler at Abbey Life explaining that he had looked at the appeals but was unable to change the outcome on the cases. We noted his comments but also noted that he had given absolutely no explanation as to why this was and had still made no comment on the overriding mis sale issues.
The cases were again passed to our General Manager who was undeterred by the responses. He has seen this type of response on these types of complaints many times in all the years he has been working on them.
Our General Manager compiled further appeals but this time to be sent to more senior compliance team members at Abbey Life. He explained how the previous complaint investigation was limited and of poor standard and that the regulators guidance had not been followed when Abbey Life sold these FSAVCs in 1996. He further went on to advise Abbey Life that we would be taking the complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service where we have an extremely good record of winning these types of complaints.
Just over two weeks later, the compliance team responded to say they had investigated the matter and were now advising the Abbey Life case handler to carry out a more appropriate loss calculation to compare the FSAVC to more appropriate added years option within the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS).
These types of calculations are extremely complex and very time consuming. WE were able to speed this process up a little by helping Mr & Mrs V obtain detailed information from the TPS and this information was provided to Abbey Life immediately.
A further two months went by where we were in regular contact with Abbey Life to ensure they were now calculating the losses occurred by Mr & Mrs V.
We were so happy to receive the offers of compensation for both Mr & Mrs V. The calculations had established that both had suffered losses of just over £25,000 each. These offers were checked to ensure they were correct which on this occasion they were.
The good news was given to Mr & Mrs V who were over the moon and couldn’t believe it. They were amazed by our perseverance and so happy that they had us fighting their corner despite the many rejections where many including them would have given up.
They have since told us how happy they are and what a big difference to their lives, the money will make.