Pearl Assurance

[Rob S]

My partner has been paying £40 a month into a Pearl Saverplan for almost 10 years.

 

The policy is due to mature on the 1st September.

 

They have not paid any bonuses on the plan for 5 years now and the upshot is that she has paid in £4800 and will only receive £4718.97 back from them.

 

I believe this is a very poor show by Pearl and totally unacceptable.

She would have got more from putting £40 a month under her mattress!

 

Does anyone have any ideas as to how we can challenge this in any way?

[bwfs2003]

I assume that the Pearl Saverplan is a traditional with-profits endowment policy. Have you received a maturity statement/letter yet ? If you haven't, it is possible (although unlikely for a 10 year policy) that a final or terminal bonus may be added.

 

Do you have any of the original documentation from when you were sold the policy ? You should have been provided with a written illustration of the possible returns using 3 assumed rates of growth. The illustration would have included a line saying "You could get back more or less than this" or something to that effect. You should have also received at least a verbal summary of the investment risks attaching to the policy.

 

You may have a valid complaint if a)you didn't get an illustration,or b)the salesperson told you that your payout would be better than the illustration figures.

 

Let me known how you get on. (PM me if you feel that would be more appropriate) I used to work for Britannic Assurance, a company not too dissimilar to the Pearl, so I know a bit about how they work.

 

I can help you by providing an opinion on the merits of the outcome, but I am unable to offer financial advice.

[GreenGuy]

I read today that Pearl have an "Inherited Estate" which they will distribute & pay out to "with-profit" policyholders - but only those who have policies after July '07. Not those of us whose policies mature earlier despite having borne the brunt of Pearl's abysmal performance over the past few years. I myself will receive almost £300 less than I have invested during the 10 years of my policy.

I read your post bwfs2003 & my original policy doc. does read "you could get back more or less than this, etc" so I know I probably don't have a case but when you read articles like the one at the link below, you have to ask how & why that amount of money has accrued & why those of us who have been hit the most don't deserve to benefit.

 

Pearl - Pearl to distribute £500million inherited estate to policyholders

 

Yes I have read the small-print at the bottom of the article which states that these funds are in excess of policy liabilties but even so, the whole thing stinks.

[beetlerumble]

i`ve just had same experience with a pearl saver plan. payed in more than i recieved and feel disgusted.

[reclaimone]

Unfortunately they dont guarantee to pay more than the basic sum assured. Sorry

[rotarygov1]

I have just received a pay out for a Pearl policy I took out 10 years ago. This was to help my daugther with her morgage. I was dismayed to find I too was out of pocket by about £300. I feel that I was conned all those years ago by the Pearl representative who was very eager I should purchase that policy. The fact that they have put a disclamer on their documentation should not deter anyone from writing to Pearl. They will certainly receive a letter from me. I wished I had looked after the money myself, the money I HONESTLY earned and expected to have had a FAIR return or at least the money returned I had paid in. However lesson learned 'dont buy from Pearl go where your custom is valued'.

[reclaimone]

Investing in With Profits funds is old hat, unless you invest with Pru in their Prufund which is essentially a unitised with profits fund with more exposure to the stock market.

[Irish Tempest]

Hi folks,

 

Just a quick question to the wise out there with a knowledge of this 'Saverplan' disaster. My Mum recomended I start this way back in 99 when I joined the Military. Like most folk in the forces I gave saving policies a stern ignoring thinking i was safely tucking away 100 per month. After 'maturing' a bit I have started examining this policy... and yes its awful. I'm doing the 'should I or shouldn't I jump?' scenario. I'm nearly 10 years in with 4 to run an I am not sure if there is even a snowballs chance of getting a final bonus from this crowd.

 

Does anyone out there have any experience of getting the terminal ... ahem bonus... or do you think I should pull the 'yellow and black handle now?'

 

I would appreciate any and all replies.

 

Steve

[DHastings]

I have just completed my 10 year sentance with a Pearl "Saver Plan" having paid £30 every month during that time (£3600). The outcome was i bit over £3000 return and this has lost me 14% on the cash I was "saving".

 

I feel that I have been ripped off.

 

I am asking the company to increase this because they are holding the £500 million from their with profits policies AND the fact that they mis-sold the plan to me in 1998/9.

 

I would have been better off by nearly £500 if I had saved my cash under the bed.and £1500 better off if I had used a standard, Building Sosiety account. I admit that the smooth salesman (Jeremy Morton) would have recieved no commission bot that was where my money went.

 

Clearly, you would be foolish to consider saving with Pearl in these circumsatnces.

 

Other savers should consider Cashing in their policies after geting a valuation. Don' use Pearl!!!

[Rob S]

I would agree with DHastings. Pearl's returns in the last few years have been abysmal. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

[madhead]

I had a 10 year gold plan with "maturing estimate" of £6,390.23 I found out today that the actual amount they just paid me was £5,400. The salesman at the time told me that this was a "safe kind" of policy yet the lady i just spoke to at Pearl just told me that it was a "very high" risk policy. I am gutted anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do next. I am not letting this one go. Ten years of investment and they can't manage my fund for the last 15 days!! without loosing £1,000!!!

[Mat-Flyer]

This is a complaint about the Pearl Assurance company.

 

14 years ago my wife and I were told that our endowments would not achieve the said amount (The endowments are with Standard Life). So a Pearl Assurance salesman came to our house and sold us a so called GOLD PLAN which after 15 years would achieve £15000 the shortfall of our endowment.

What he didn't tell us was that the premium would go up annually and what started off as £50 per month has gone up nearly 50% and is £73.50 per month, he also never mentioned there was a possibility that this wonderful GOLD PLAN would not achieve the £15000, I'm sure he must have left our house clicking his heel's with his commission in mind.

 

I happened to be surfing the net and came across a This Pearl Assurance Forum, after reading the complaints (and there are many)

i decided to look into our GOLD PLAN and 'Surprise Surprise' after my wife phoning them they tell us that the GOLD PLAN is now worth £9700 and considering we have paid in £11000 already in 14 years we have lost £1300.

We have now decided to cut and run. The plan matures in October 2009 and for it to be worth us keeping it the value would need to be over £11000 and this is unlikely to be achieved. We have complained to Pearl but they are not interested. We will be going to the Ombudsman with this case.

 

The fact is Pearl have had the benefit of our regular payment for 14 years and been able to invest our money. At the very least they should make sure that the monies paid out equal monies paid in.

 

Nobody in their right mind starts a scheme where they will lose money!!!

If we had saved the money under our bed it would still be there.

 

We have now been told Surprise Surprise that the value of our plan has gone down to £9500. I have had accounts with Pearl since I was a young lad, my father first started me with them. But as sure as eggs are eggs I will never use them again and anybody contemplating an account with Pearl should think very long and hard!

 

Mat-Flyer :mad:

[bobbyh99]

The fact is Pearl have had the benefit of our regular payment for 14 years and been able to invest our money. At the very least they should make sure that the monies paid out equal monies paid in.

 

Whilst I agree that you have probably been led up the garden path and mis-sold this plan and I do wish you success with the FOS. What you really need to realise is that is you make payments to a company for them to "invest" your money, over a period of time, then there is always a risk that you will lose money, the same as there is a good chance that your money will increase.

 

Unfortunately, in todays climate, the only safe place to keep your money is under your mattress.

[madhead]

The most important issue here is that the salesman at the time misled us using words like "guaranteed return etc " (and by us I suspect many people). Mine too was a gold plan. Exactly the same reassurances were given at time of sale. In fact I extended my policy from an existing one which performed well. if I had paid the money into a bank account of low interest returns it still would not have lost money. If a big financial company looses your money by crap management then they should be held accountable for it period.

 

I have had no luck with Pearl And I too will never use them again.Very :-x:-x:-x:-x......

[Richard Harvis]

Some people may not know about Pearl's recent history.

In 1991 they were bought by Australian financial services provider AMP. Pearl up to that date had some sizeable cash reserves saved by the fact that they were not too generous when paying bonuses.

AMP took advantage of this fund and used it to acquire other companies such as NPI and a stake in Virgin Money.

In 2001, there was the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, which caused global markets to tumble. The management at Pearl had used up the reserves in their fund, and were short for cash because of the stock market problems.

At one point, their parent AMP had to bail them out with many cash injections. It was also at this point that bonuses were slashed.

In 2002 all the Pearl agents were made redundant along with their administrative support staff. At the same time Pearl stopped taking on new business, with the exception of increasing premiums to certain products or joining a group pension scheme.

Today, Pearl exists mainly as a brand, administering the 1.5 million policies that are left. They are now owned by a parent company, Pearl Group, which has also acquired Phoenix, who own a number of closed-business life assurance providers.

The point of this message is not only did the customers lose out, but a huge number of dedicated and professional staff at Pearl were left without a job.