Endowment Frustration

[jh72i]

Ok, I'm not the most financially savvy. In fact, I seldom have any idea what I'm doing so I am easily fobbed off.

My problem is this: I bought a house in 1999 and went through a mortgage broker to sort that end of things (IMC). The showed me the options and recommended I an endowment mortgage was the best way to go (I actually remember the girl saying to me 'look all you have to do is make 6% a year on your policy and what company would be in business if it didn't make 6%pa'!!). Gullible me!

Anyway, I'm..what..8 years in now and have had to up the payments three times already to "ensure" (ha!) that the policy has enough in it to pay the amount owed at the end.

A couple of years ago I organised a meeting with IMC (because the banks in question wouldn't talk to me directly, only through the broker), met with them, conveyed my concerns and got completely 100% fobbed off with nothing useful. I then went to an independent financial adviser I had contact with some years earlier to get his advice. I think all he did was get the banks to send me the same statements they had already done.


Now you get it - I'm a complete loser with the finances and I have just kind of hidden away from it since.

But, now that it comes to my head again I get really worried. Worried that I will not be able to pay off the sum when I have to. Worried what will happen if (when - baby!) I want to move house in the future. Am I going to lose my shirt - is all the money I have pumped into this house already going be wasted.

Can anybody guide me to what I need to be doing, who i need to be talking to.

Thanks

 

[ClubMan]

If you have it in writing that somebody recommended this product as the best for your specific situation at the time then you should ask them to explain this now and, if necessary, complain to the [broken link removed]. Put all queries in writing so that you have a record of correspondence.

In the meantime it might be worth investigating if it might be prudent to switch to a regular annuity/repayment mortgage which will guarantee to pay off the mortgage over the term and then decide separately what to do with the endowment policy (e.g. cancel it and take whatever refund is going, sell it on, or continue to invest in it as a separate investment policy). You should check out what charges/commissions you are paying on this and any associated products (e.g. mortgage protection life assurance policy, mortgage repayment insurance if applicable etc.).

If you want independent, professional advice then talk to an authorised advisor or a good multi-agency intermediary.