Trustee not found

[flopski2]

My mother had a Scottish Widow's whole of life policy to pay possible IHT. On the death of the my mother, our solicitor tried to claim on the policy but has been told that there is another named trustee. I think he was possibly one of the IFAs who sold the policy and we have his name and the address at the time. He is, however, no longer at that address and, given the property has been sold twice since then, there is no record of where he is now. Scottish Widows will not progress the policy without his say so. Is there a procedure we can follow to prove that we are aware of the trustee but cannot find them (assuming he is still alive - the policy has been running for 20 years)? Surely with all long term policies, this must be an issue. Furthermore SW sells these types of policies on the fact that money should be swiftly available to pay IHT .... Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[Dod101]

My mother had a Scottish Widow's whole of life policy to pay possible IHT. On the death of the my mother, our solicitor tried to claim on the policy but has been told that there is another named trustee. I think he was possibly one of the IFAs who sold the policy and we have his name and the address at the time. He is, however, no longer at that address and, given the property has been sold twice since then, there is no record of where he is now. Scottish Widows will not progress the policy without his say so. Is there a procedure we can follow to prove that we are aware of the trustee but cannot find them (assuming he is still alive - the policy has been running for 20 years)? Surely with all long term policies, this must be an issue. Furthermore SW sells these types of policies on the fact that money should be swiftly available to pay IHT .... Thanks in advance for any help with this.

I would have thought that an insurance indemnity policy might be possible along the lines of the sort of thing that share registrars require to reissue a lost share certificate. If I were you I would try speaking to Scottish Widows myself and stress to them that this cannot be entirely unusual and there needs to be a solution. Have you tried the IFA's trade body if there is one? There must be a regulator and they could surely tell you what became of the missing IFA?

Dod

[flopski2]

Our solicitor has been dealing with Scottish Widows but they seem to be in no hurry. Policy was taken out in 1998 and the address that we had for the trustee was sold in 2008 and 2013. No one seems to have records over 7 years old!

As an ex-employee of Scottish Widows from many years ago, I find their ability to manage long term data seems poor (they lost my wife's pension details - she is also an ex-employee and I have tried to find details of my pension three times with no success so far!). I am sure there must be a procedure in cases like this but it appears like delaying tactics by Scottish Widows.

[Dod101]

There was a time when Scottish Widows were very good but that was before they sold themselves to Lloyds Bank and then a bit was sold off to Aberdeen wasn't it?

Sorry I do not have any more suggestions.

Dods

[didds]

There was a time when Scottish Widows were very good but that was before they sold themselves to Lloyds Bank

those last two words say everything.

LB lost the details of an endowment policy, and even the mortgage it covered. No records of it ever existing apparently.

Years later she got a letter about the endowment completion and payout.

From LB.

didds

[didds]

(sorry - missed out the info that the mortgage and endowment were owned by my wife, from before we met)

didds

[flopski2]

Tried to use FCA Financial Services Register to track trustee down as I think he was an IFA (or FA?). Register is unavailable - some not very reassuring messages if you try and use it .... I hope they haven't been hacked!

[PinkDalek]

Tried to use FCA Financial Services Register to track trustee down as I think he was an IFA (or FA?). Register is unavailable - some not very reassuring messages if you try and use it .... I hope they haven't been hacked!

It would appear to be down due to maintenance:

https://register.fca.org.uk/

[flopski2]

Unplanned maintenance - that screen has just appeared in the last hour! Was error messages before that.

[flopski2]

Trustee tracked down. Found via companies house data. He was director of several companies and seemed to have moved around a lot. A letter to one of the director addresses finally forwarded to him. Scottish Widows have now paid out, although it is a fraction of what my parents originally signed up to in 1998. I think Daily Telegraph was trying to get "whole of life policies " included as miss-selling but failed due to small print in the policies. I must admit from what I know of this policy if it was likened to buying a three piece suite then several years later Scottish Widows took away an arm chair and asked for more money for the sofa! If that DFS tried that there would be an outcry but Scottish Widows et al seem tohave got away with it!

[Dod101]

I am glad you found the Trustee but I am very saddened to hear about the proceeds because as you and your wife will know having worked for Scottish Widows, when they were a mutual they were very good. I had two or three different policies with them over the years and I got a large payout when they were sold to Lloyds Bank!

Dod