Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Legal and General Assurance Society Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr W complained about L&G's service when attempting to access his life assurance policy online in October 2025 to put it in trust for his daughter. The core issue was that L&G had an incorrect date of birth on file, which prevented Mr W from logging in. Although L&G had informed Mr W of this discrepancy in April 2024, he did not take corrective action at that time. During October 2025, Mr W failed to provide his date of birth when L&G requested it on two occasions, and the issue was only identified when Mr W provided a screenshot on 28 October 2025. L&G offered £100 compensation and the ombudsman found this fair, concluding that both parties could have resolved the matter faster and that L&G was not required to assume Mr W had hearing difficulties without indication or to automatically confirm all call instructions in writing.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that both parties contributed to the delay in resolving the issue. While L&G could have identified the date of birth discrepancy earlier and reiterated the request for this information before 28 October 2025, Mr W failed to provide his date of birth when asked on two occasions (17 and 23 October 2025), despite having been informed of the issue in April 2024. The ombudsman rejected the argument that L&G should have assumed Mr W had hearing difficulties based on age alone without indication, and found it was not unreasonable for L&G to require proof of the correct date of birth before updating their records. The fact that L&G sent the trust documents on 20 October 2025 mitigated the harm caused. The £100 compensation was deemed fair and reasonable.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website