My research indicates that a new company crops up every day designed to make money from ALL of those who sold endowments. My views on endowment mortgages are well documented, I do not believe in them. However, some things are NOT black and white.
I do not believe you can paint every single adviser with the same brush. I am confident that many advisers DID advise their clients that endowments could go down as well as up but equally many consumers will jump on the bandwagon and cry "foul". The professional advisers who did advise their clients correctly may just be guilty of not keeping an audit trail. It is my belief that the burden of proof is on the adviser to prove they did inform the client of the implications of using an endowment as a repayment vehicle.
Here lies the rub. Sure, some mortgage and insurance brokers need to clean up their act but please let their be justice on both sides. There can be little doubt that innocent consumers have been the victim of endowment mis-selling but I would hate to see innocent advisers suffer due toa poor administrationsystem and an inadequate regulatory system.
Brokers need to "be prepared" for the knock on the door and endeavour to get their paperwork in order to prove their innocence when they sold endowments. It almost beggars belief that there are still 10% of endowments being sold with new mortgages. Do some people never learn? There can be no justification for anyone selling an endowment mortgage in this turbulent and spiralling stock market. Those whocontinue to do so, do so at their peril.
