Is this the 'unfair justice' that John Tiner described? http://tinyurl.co.uk/cq0a Yes he does have a 'Big Stick' but he should be accountable to someone who knows a little more than he does about financial services products, that could be anyone with a basic Financial Planning Certificate! Does he have any FS qualifications? His staff don't appear to think they need any http://www.leviathanlaidbare.co.uk even if the rest of us do...

Claimants can choose when they complain, the timing of the claim can result in a hefty profit if they stick with the contract and don't panic when the regulator runs round in circles waving its arms screaming for compensation to be paid because it is suffering from yet another bout of short term selective memory syndrome. http://www.ifadu.co.uk/downloads/Letterto%20FT.pdf

The same principle applies to mortgage endowments, bonds, pensions etc. But don't forget about the built-in shortfalls created by the providers who slavishly (or cunningly) used LAUTRO 'assumed expenses' in illustrations for products sold between April 1988 and January 1995 (or even later!). Because of this there are millions of policies which will not meet the reasonable expectations of those who were sold them in good faith. http://www.ifadu.co.uk/downloads/FOI0002.pdf

If only we could inject some common sense into the veins of this one-eyed 'Leviathan at Large' http://www.cps.org.uk/pdf/pub/35.pdf, if only it would stop and think before reacting badly to the hysterical wailing of those who purport to protect the 'consumer' http://www.notwhich.co.uk but do the just opposite out of ignorance of the financial system. A case in point is the 'Pensions Review' which caused so much hardship among consumers and advisers alike, all this was based on the assumption that final salary pension scheme benefits were in some way guaranteed when we all knew they were nothing of the sort, unless you happen to be an MP or a Judge of course, the very same people who bailed out of Equitable Life while they actively discouraged advisers to save other policyholders from losing their shirts as did the 'grannies' who lost theirs on the railways.

It's sad to see UK PLC in such a state of fear, a fear of advising the 'consumer' only to have the Leviathan put on its rose-tinted 100% hindsight goggles at a specific point in time when the maximum level of compensation can be extracted, it then sits back and admires its work while dreaming up more scams so that it can fine more firms to replenish its coffers after spending an incredible amount on 'educating' the consumer while failing to avoid a CCJ for £425. http://www.ifadu.co.uk/downloads/FSACCJ.pdf

It it wasn't so true then nobody would believe it wasn't a 'Carry on' film from the good old days entitled 'Strangulation by Regulation' with one 'Big Chief' wielding a 'Big Stick' upon a tribe of 'Insurance Salesmen' who face extinction simply because the Chief doesn't understand what they actually sell and refuses to consider that they might actually be doing a good job.

It is a fact that after two decades of rules and regulations the people who are strangling the system appear to have learned nothing, if they do in fact know what they are doing then they should be ashamed of themselves.

"Most regulators’ careers end prematurely in failure and disgrace."

HOWARD DAVIES : HENRY THORNTON LECTURE : CITY UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL : 4 NOVEMBER 1998

Oppression can only survive through silence: Carmen de Monteflores

"Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem"

- John Galsworthy