Tuesday, August 24, 2004

The Death of a Thousand Cuts

Yet more cuts in bonus rates have been foisted on endowment policy holders.

This time, it is Friends Provident who give policy holders a kick in the guts; they have reduced their payouts on maturing policies by 3%. This reduction is expected to affect around 1 million endowment policy holders, and is their fourth cut in 18 months.

Reports indicate that, for example, the payout on a £50 per month 25 year endowment will fall from £51K to £48K (in 2003 the same policy was worth £62K).

To my humble view, using a technical term here, these people are simply "taking the piss" out of endowment policy holders.

Friends Provident claim that the reductions will ensure: "that there will be a closer alignment of policy payouts with their underlying investment values."

In other words, the policies are worth "F**k All"; and they, Friends Provident and other life assurance companies, are simply softening up the hapless holders for this bombshell by the death of a thousand cuts.

If you haven't signed my petition yet, then don't you think it is time that you did?

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