Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Shutting The Stable Door

It seems that the government has finally woken up to implications of the endowment policy mis-selling scandal.

However, before we all crack open the champagne; in the expectation that some form of compensation will be winging its way to us, I must dampen your spirits.

The government, realising the mess that the mis-selling of endowments has caused, is making sure that the same thing will not happen again for home reversion schemes.

These schemes are whereby older people may release the equity from their homes, and live off that until they die.

Needless to say these schemes have every chance of being as massively mis-sold, as the endowment polices were in the 1980's.

Therefore the government will regulate them.

Announcing the decision, financial secretary Ruth Kelly said that buying such a policy represented a huge decision.

She added: "It can have significant implications for tax, benefits, inheritance and long-term financial planning."

No kidding!

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