£700,000 fine, compensation could reach £31mn

United Friendly Insurance and Refuge Assurance, both taken over by Royal London (which is prepared to pick up the tab) last year, have been fined £700,000 for misselling with-profits endowment savings policies. Imposing the third-largest fine (Royal Scottish Assurance £2mn and Liverpool Victoria £900,000), the Personal Investment Authority (PIA) cited ‘breaches of PIA rules’. PIA investigations found that salesmen had failed to give best advice, that both insurers had neglected adequate monitoring of staff and had not dealt properly with consumer complaints.