Ahmed complains about the reduction in the level of benefit of his long-term care plan.
What happened
Ahmed took out a long-term care plan following advice from an independent financial adviser. He paid a lump sum of £14,025 for a monthly benefit of £358 in the event of a successful claim.
Ten years later the independent financial adviser reviewed the policy and the benefit level was reduced.
Ahmed complained the review was unfair because the cover he had now was less than he’d had ten years before. He thought this was a lifetime cover.
What we said
We reviewed copies of the documents available from the time of the original sale, including the quotation, product brochure and policy document.
We thought the fact that the policy was reviewable was very important to customers like Ahmed, who were looking to achieve some security in their old age.
Taking into account what Ahmed had told us, and the information in the available documents, we didn’t think the independent financial adviser had done enough to draw Ahmed’s attention to the fact that the level of benefit was reviewable.
After discussing the options with Ahmed, we told the financial adviser to pay him compensation equivalent to the premiums he’d paid for the policy, plus interest from the date these had been paid, to when the settlement was paid.