Reason for Endowment shortfalls

jamiefoggon · 2003-10-16T22:41:12+00:00

Can anyone verify or add to my opinions on why there are endowment shortfalls to such a degree? I have read a lot on the web, and the only information I can find is quite vague, but seems to relate mostly to: * the up-front and ongoing charges on the funds being higher than people were told * the forecasts for the funds did not take these higher charges into account * people were not notified in time of the shortfalls * people did not take action on being notified It seems to me that if charging was not communicated accurately, it is grounds for compensation, and the same goes for the forecasts that people get shown. However, the growth in the stock market over last 20 yrs is surely enough for these endowments to have reached the desired amount with moderate fees included? It also a significant aspect that if there is a dip in the market towards the end of a mortgage term it has a huge effect for obvious reasons. Is this not at least as significant as the reasons above? We have an endowment we took out in the UK in 99/2000. I do not have all the details of the charging structure yet, but does anyone know whether the rules were changed by this point so that charging was more regulated? We know our invetsment is extremely short at the moment, but I suppose it is still pointless to surrender or trade at this point. Finally, we are now buying in the netherlands - and are remortgaging on the back of very positive equity to cover cost of renovations over here in Amsterdam. We need to decide whether to remortgage as an interest only (not endowment I dont think - will take out a separate investment fund - thinking about offshore, any recommendations?) - or perhaps even repayment as its quite a small amount - 35k. Any answers / advice on any of that will be very welcome :-)

Oct 16, 2003 40 Replies

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Terry Harper 22 years ago

My mother fell into this category after she was widowed. She was one of the "ten shilling widows", but that was long before your time, Stephen.

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Reason for Endowment shortfalls

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