C
Chris Tarrant
Guest
Is it:
A) The looming Endowment Mortgage shortfall crisis? Eddie Hobbs is about to be proven right in spades on his apocalyptic predictions of 10 years ago. But already spokespersons for the life industry are poo-pooing the failure of their products against the context of house price rises. Don't make this your final answer without careful thought.
Or is it:
B) The Flexible Whole Life Bomb Out? I read in the paper at the weekend of some chappie whose premium had to go up by 250%. A spokesperson for the company admitted this was a pretty nasty position for the customer to be in, but really no different than the Endowment Mortgage shortfall. Isn't it weird when an industry takes solace that one disaster (for its customers) is really much the same as the next?
Or is it:
C) The Pensions Misselling Scandal? But we don't have a... Oh yes we do! There are poor customers out there with little bits of paper locked away for safe keeping. These were the promise of their pension given back in the late 80's. It assumed double digit returns and double digit annuity rates. These unfortunates are going to receive about a quarter of what is on that piece of paper. Some companies may have kept in touch and broken the news gently. Most won't have bothered.
Or is it:
D) The With Profits Bond bonus disappearing trick? Okay, so policyholders have already seen bonuses fall. But that was against market falls of 20%, I guess they felt they got off light. But what about when markets rise, maybe this year for example? Bonuses will continue to fall. How is that going to be explained?
This question is worth the €500M annual profit of the life industry and there are no more life lines.
A) The looming Endowment Mortgage shortfall crisis? Eddie Hobbs is about to be proven right in spades on his apocalyptic predictions of 10 years ago. But already spokespersons for the life industry are poo-pooing the failure of their products against the context of house price rises. Don't make this your final answer without careful thought.
Or is it:
B) The Flexible Whole Life Bomb Out? I read in the paper at the weekend of some chappie whose premium had to go up by 250%. A spokesperson for the company admitted this was a pretty nasty position for the customer to be in, but really no different than the Endowment Mortgage shortfall. Isn't it weird when an industry takes solace that one disaster (for its customers) is really much the same as the next?
Or is it:
C) The Pensions Misselling Scandal? But we don't have a... Oh yes we do! There are poor customers out there with little bits of paper locked away for safe keeping. These were the promise of their pension given back in the late 80's. It assumed double digit returns and double digit annuity rates. These unfortunates are going to receive about a quarter of what is on that piece of paper. Some companies may have kept in touch and broken the news gently. Most won't have bothered.
Or is it:
D) The With Profits Bond bonus disappearing trick? Okay, so policyholders have already seen bonuses fall. But that was against market falls of 20%, I guess they felt they got off light. But what about when markets rise, maybe this year for example? Bonuses will continue to fall. How is that going to be explained?
This question is worth the €500M annual profit of the life industry and there are no more life lines.