Secret Commission Payments
I received this email today, from someone who has made a very interesting discovery about the commission payments being made "secretly" from his endowment policy.
It seems that, despite the fact the policy was sold to him back in the 80's, commissions of 2.5% are still being deducted annually from his policy; and paid to the IFA that sold him the policy.
Even more startling, is the fact that he could have cancelled these payments at anytime; had the life assurance company that runs his endowment policy bothered to tell him of their existence.
However, as his life assurance company puts it:
"..The representative said that whilst he conceded that
it would be in the interest of policy holders it would not be in the
interest of ** (edited) since the company required the firms of advisors,
brokers etc to provide it with a continual stream of new business.."
The 2.5% could well make a very significant difference to the maturity value of the policy.
In my view this is a very serious issue. The action of the life assurance company; in not telling him of these commission payments, and his right to cancel them, is scandalous to say the least.
I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has encountered this issue.
The text of the email is reproduced in full below, the name of the life assurance company has been withheld for the time being.
"..I have an endowment policy with ** (edited) that I acquired in March
1988. I recently had cause to telephone that organisation to ask why I
had not received any annual bonus statements for a couple of years. The
representative that fielded my call told me that statements had been
issued. I inquired as to where they had been sent and was given an address
that was a complete mystery to me, having never resided anywhere remotely
close to that location.
The representative explained that this must be the address of a firm who
were acting as my financial advisor. I said that I didn't have a financial
advisor and what on earth was he talking about? He explained to me that
normally a copy of the annual bonus statement is sent to the policy
holder's financial advisor at the same time as the original is sent to the
policy holder. He added that in my case, for some strange reason, my
address details had been overwritten with those of my "financial advisor"
and that consequently the original had been sent to them whilst I had
received nothing.
I repeated my statement that I did not have a financial advisor and asked
who exactly were this firm. After a little searching through my file the
representative explained that this was a firm that had taken over another
firm who were at the time also acting as my "advisor". That second firm's
name I did recall, just about. It was the company that had originally sold
me my endowment policy all those years ago.
I told the representative that at no time during the last 16 years had I
any contact with either of those firms, except during the time of the
policy sale back in March 1988. I then asked what possible reason could
there be for sending copies of my bonus statements to parties with whom I
had no ongoing relationship. I was told that whilst I may not have any
direct relationship, ** (edited) was paying out a commission each month
to the firm currently acting as my "advisor". I asked how much was the
commission and was told 2.5%. I was then told not to worry as this was not
coming out of my monthly premium. I then explained to the representative
that I was ultimately bearing the cost as the effect of the commission was
to reduce the available funds from which ** (edited) could declare a
bonus to policy holders. The representative agreed.
I said that I was aware that when an endowment policy is sold the firm
brokering the deal receives a lump sum commission payment. However, I said
that I was not aware that an ongoing commission is payable on each and
every premium until maturity. Nor was I aware that the entitlement to that
commission could be purchased by another firm. I asked whether the firms
were contractually entitled to this ongoing commission and was told that
they were not! I then asked what needed to happen for the commission not
to be paid. I was informed that all that needed to happen was for me to
tell ** (edited), in writing, that I wanted the payments to stop. I said
I would be writing immediately.
I then said to the representative that I was willing to wager that a
sizeable majority of policy holders were similarly unaware that such
ongoing commission charges were being paid. I also commented that the sum
total of these charges would amount to a significant sum ....a sum that
could surely have a material impact on the size of the bonus declared. I
put it to the representative that it would surely be in the best interests
of all policy holders for ** (edited) to immediately stop all ongoing
commission payments. The representative said that whilst he conceded that
it would be in the interest of policy holders it would not be in the
interest of ** (edited) since the company required the firms of advisors,
brokers etc to provide it with a continual stream of new business.
I shall be writing to ** (edited) instructing that all ongoing commission
payments in respect of my policy cease immediately. I shall further be
stating that:
1. I was unaware that such payments were being made;
2. ** (edited) had not made me aware that I had the right to terminate
such payments;
3. The corollary of the fact that only I can terminate these payments is
that only I should be able to authorise the payments in the first place.
Needless to say, I did not give my consent to the payments;
4. Notwithstanding 3. above, if ongoing commission was not a contractual
entitlement then it should not have been paid out in the first place.
As a consequence of 1 to 4 above, I shall be demanding that the value of
the commission paid (plus compound growth thereon) be added to the
cumulative total of my reversionary bonuses.
I should be very interested to learn whether other policy holders are
similarly unaware of the existence of the ongoing commission payments and
that they have the right to terminate them...."
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