Guide on Selling An Endowment Policy (F.S.A. Guide )

 

Click Here to sell your Standard Life Endowment Policy or phone 0800 072 1972

 

Before you surrender, or sell,  your standard life endowment policy, you should take independent financial advice.

To quote Standard Life's own web based advice:
"Endowments have been in the news for quite some time, raising concerns for many people about endowments which fail to meet projected maturity figures. This has also raised important questions about potential mis-selling. Because everyone's circumstances are different, we recommend that you should always speak to a financial adviser before making any changes to your mortgage or endowment."
 

However, if your mind is made up then you would be amiss not to investigate the added financial benefits of selling your endowment, as you could get more money for it than simply surrendering it back to the Standard Life office.

Selling endowment policies is enabled by filling in a short form at the link above, or phoning the number to give the endowment policy details over the phone.

 

The following is a news article from the Guardian Newspaper on the latest move by Standard Life. Standard Life gears up for flotation ·Oldest mutual insurer valued at up to £6bn ·Policyholders urged to support U-turn Monday January 2, 2006 The Guardian A knee-high red papier-mache doll sits in the corner of Trevor Matthews' office in Standard Life's Edinburgh headquarters. A traditional Japanese good luck charm, it was presented to the head of the company's UK and European life and pension arm when he was charged with turning round a troubled Japanese business. According to tradition, the recipient of the Daruma doll paints in one of the eyes on receiving the doll and makes a wish, only painting in the other eye when it comes true. The wish remains a secret but was clearly fulfilled as both eyes are inexpertly painted in black. There is little doubt what his wish now must be. He needs to make Standard's life and pensions business as profitable as possible as soon as possible. His task began 18 months ago when he was the first outsider to be appointed to an executive role at Standard Life, and is crucial to the future of Europe's oldest mutual insurer. It is aiming for a stock market flotation this summer, which is likely to be one of the year's biggest share sales. Analysts reckon the business could be worth between £4bn and £6bn, promising windfall shares for 2.4 million policyholders worth between £500 and £1,000 each. Getting to the stock market, though, is requiring much change. For years, as a mutual, Standard Life had not been run for profit. Instead, it has chased market share and sold keenly priced products to push it to the top of league tables. So competitively priced was it that one of Matthews' first tasks was to pull back in some markets, notably stakeholder pensions, where Standard Life had been a market leader. "The emperor had no clothes," is how Matthews describes discovering that the commission paid to independent financial advisers negated any possibility of profitable sales. Tie-ups with banks Standard Life is looking at sales tie-ups with banks to reduce its reliance on IFAs. It has also been looking at new products such as self-invested personal pensions (Sipps), although these suffered a set-back when the Treasury changed the rules for these products in the pre-budget report. There is also a fresh focus on costs. Some 3,000 jobs have gone and employees, used to a job for life, are now encouraged to "watch every penny". The results of this change of attitude will be seen in March when the insurer starts sending out documents asking policyholders to back the flotation. Sandy Crombie, parachuted in as chief executive two years ago after Standard Life ran into problems with the Financial Services Authority, makes no secret of the fact that Standard Life's figures will not match the profits of quoted competitors such as Prudential and Legal & General. The documentation will contain three years' numbers for the insurer and all Crombie can say of the newest figures for the 2005 financial year is that "the magnitude of the change will be evident". Crombie, himself a lifer at Standard Life who has had to perform personal U-turns in promoting demutualisation, believes that a business run for profit will be a better one. "Standard Life has come from a very customer-centric direction," he says, and once the business is a stock market-listed company, it will not "ditch the customer as a stakeholder but add a new one" - the shareholder. Policyholders who have endured cuts to their bonuses and received the bleak letters warning them that their endowment policies will leave a shortfall on their mortgage may doubt Crombie's words about customer focus. The stock market flotation is being pursued only five years after Standard Life fought a hard campaign against the carpetbagger Fred Woollard to remain mutual and three years after fighting off David Stonebanks, another policyholder seeking change. Not only are policyholders being forced to embark on a U-turn, so are employees. Paul McKenna, membership communications and logistics manager, was one of the staff who paraded the streets of Edinburgh five years ago with a T-shirt emblazoned with "Keep Standard Life Mutual". He now admits the T-shirt has been doctored to read "Help Standard Life demutualise." McKenna believed in mutualisation then and demutualisation now. "I believe in 2000 that was the best thing [remaining mutual] - absolutely. And I believe this is the right thing. Things have changed. The mutual model doesn't fit [anymore]," he says. Helpline His colleague Gill Baker, the membership manager, adds: "It feels personal. The culture is unlike any company you will ever see. It's almost like a personal blow." This might help explain why there also appears to be an ambition to convince policyholders, who voted down Woollard five years ago by a 55% to 45% vote, to give the flotation plans a huge level of support. Their aim is for a "massive endorsement", essential if the courts are to sanction the demutualisation plan. The aim is for a turnout of at least 1.2 million - half the members - and a vote in favour well over the official hurdle of 75%. In the Woollard campaign about 1 million members turned out, a high percentage compared with an average vote at less contentious annual meetings of just 200,000. The logistics of writing to 2.4 million members and a further 4.6 million policyholders who are not entitled to free shares is being undertaken by a team of 150 people. The 2.4 million policyholders entitled to free shares were contacted two months ago to enable personal details to be checked and some 10% have already contacted the Standard Life helpline. Policyholders in Europe and Canada are also being contacted. In the spring, the insurer will send voting forms to policyholders and soon afterwards, ahead of a special general meeting in May or June, it aims to send a prospectus, likely to run to 400 pages, to all 7 million policyholders. It will be a complex exercise: the share offer details must reach the 7 million policyholders within three days. This is likely to take 40% of the country's printing capacity. Standard Life also wants big City institutions to buy into the share sale but has yet to announce how much fresh capital it intends to raise. Some in the City doubt whether the company will get to flotation before being taken over, or believe it will be taken over soon after. Unlike the building societies that demutualised in the late 1990s, Standard Life is offered no protection against takeover. Crombie says: "I do believe there will be a quoted Standard Life. I don't believe we'll be taken over." The next six months will require Crombie, Matthews and the new finance director Alison Reed, formerly of Marks & Spencer, to convince the City that Standard Life is fit to float. Crombie, who joined Standard Life in 1966 and says he has no plans to leave before retirement age in three years, is eager to show that he is realistic. "We have to represent ourselves as changing rather than changed," he says. Backstory Twice in five years, Standard Life had to fend off carpetbaggers trying to unleash payouts to policyholders. But problems with the Financial Services Authority in 2004 forced a rethink at Europe's oldest mutual insurer. To shore up its capital base, it had to sell equities and buy safer bonds, and a U-turn led to the historic decision to float. Due this summer, it is set to be one of the year's biggest debuts. Selling endowments for more than the surrender value Selling endowments the quick and easy way Selling endowments for profit