I read with interest the article on pension mortgages by Paul Robertson in issue 32. I agree with most of what was said, in particular where it is suggested a lot of these mortgages may have changed latterly.
But the concern must be for those who have not changed, and face a double whammy at retirement with low annuity rates and no tax-free cash to top it up. I suspect there are still a large number of people who will not be having a happy retirement.
I am not suggesting another review, but please, we cannot ignore this problem hoping it will go away. These are people’s lives we are talking about, and we have a responsibility for those with the time to do something about the situation ‘ even if it is an advertising campaign to alert them.
But there is another problem looming that in my opinion is even worse ‘ those people who bought endowment mortgages in the 1980s who, when times were hard, cancelled the endowment policy to save money. They now have no means of repaying the debt.
I am sure I am not the only IFA who comes across such people. Robert Clifford on page 10 of issue 32 is another.
I would be interested to know if anyone has done any research. If not, in a few years there will surely be another scandal as banks and building societies repossess such houses, or force a sale to raise the funds. These are the organisations who should have ensured the endowment policies were in place, but stopped assigning such policies to save themselves money.
