Upheld: failure to provide fair, clear and not misleading information; inadequate policy administration complaint against Countrywide Assured Plc
Financial Ombudsman decision DRN-6180628 of 2026-05-21T00:00:00+00:00. failure to provide fair, clear and not misleading information; inadequate policy administration complaint against Countrywide Assured Plc. Outcome: Upheld.
Decision detail
| Reference | DRN-6180628 |
|---|---|
| Decision date | 2026-05-21T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Firm | Countrywide Assured Plc |
| Product | whole of life insurance policy |
| Claim type | failure to provide fair, clear and not misleading information; inadequate policy administration |
| Outcome | Upheld |
| Remedy | Countrywide Assured Plc must: (1) Reconstruct the policy based on a sum assured of £200,000 and premiums of £254.84 per month from July 2016, offering Mr and Mrs R the option to repay the deficit in premiums; (2) Re-do all reviews since 2016 and provide options that would have been given if reviews had failed; (3) Deduct any deficit in premiums from any future claim or surrender value if Mr and Mrs R do not make up the deficit; (4) Provide a formal indemnity to cover any tax liability arising from a claim made before the reconstructed policy becomes qualifying. |
Summary
Mr and Mrs R held a whole of life insurance policy with Countrywide Assured Plc since the early 1990s for inheritance tax mitigation and family protection. The policy was taken out on a maximum cover basis and began to fail reviews in 2023 and 2024, requiring top-up policies and changes to the original terms. The ombudsman found that Countrywide failed to provide Mr and Mrs R with sufficient fair, clear and not misleading information about their policy from September 2015 onwards, when policy costs first exceeded premiums paid—a critical tipping point requiring disclosure. Had Mr and Mrs R been properly informed by September 2016, they would likely have proactively restructured the policy with reduced sum assured and increased premiums rather than facing forced changes years later. The ombudsman upheld the complaint and ordered Countrywide to reconstruct the policy from July 2016 with a sum assured of £200,000 and monthly premiums of £254.84, re-do all subsequent reviews, and provide a tax indemnity for any claims made before the reconstructed policy becomes qualifying.
The Ombudsman's reasoning
The ombudsman found that Countrywide failed to provide Mr and Mrs R with sufficient information about their policy at the critical tipping point when costs overtook premiums in September 2015. The firm should have communicated key details about charges, future premium requirements, and possible sum assured reductions within 12 months of this point. The ombudsman determined that had Mr and Mrs R been properly informed in 2016, they would likely have reconstructed the policy to make it more sustainable by increasing premiums to £254.84 and reducing the sum assured to £200,000, rather than waiting for the policy to fail reviews in 2023 and 2024. This reconstruction represents putting them back in the position they would have been in had the failing not occurred.
How this compares
| Group | Decisions | Uphold rate |
|---|---|---|
| Countrywide Assured Plc, all decisions | 197 | 31% |
Source
Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website