endowments never guaranteed to pay off the loan, its not how they work. Even as a snotty 21 year old, I understood that and told the bank to shove it
Endowment policies took off in an era when interest rates were decent or even in double figures, 11% or 12%, and modest savings in a basic building society account brought a nice little return for a few hundred pounds saved over 12months. So potential returns from endowment polices were sold on the basis of ('this will pay off your mortgage at the end of 25 years and give you a nice little lump sum toward a car or a holiday'. Even when they started to go pear shaped when interest rates were dropping to single figures 5% and lower, the letters of advice were still saying, do not cash in your policy, keep paying into it, but also start something else to pay off your mortgage. (We had two polices, both gave similar worded letters, from reputable companies Standard Life and Legal & General. The average man on the street believed these "experts". We ignored the advice in the letters and made suitable alternate arrangements, after we realised the value of one policy was worth less than what had been paid in.)
The biggest fundamental mistake that has messed up the modern economy for the average worker was not insisting upon bog standard repayment mortgages, with limits on the lending around three and half times annual salary of the highest wage earner, not counting any bonuses or overtime. (Thats pretty much what the rules were about 35-40ish years ago). If the limits on lending had been more realistic basic supply and demand would have controlled the value of 90%+ of the housing market. (There will always be that 10%+ of high earners who can push the value up of a handful of properties). And we would not be in the stupid place we are now where the average worker earning an average wage cannot afford to buy his or her own home, unless they have a loan based on five or six times two incomes including bonuses on an endowment mortgage.
As you say Kurt, basic common sense suggests these type of practices are daft. yet somehow "experts" in the financial industry calculated that these were actually viable realistic products that should work. Probably the same people who decided; Banks should be building societies, Building Societies should be banks, Supermarkets should be both bank building society and energy supplier and petrol stations, and John Lewis, or Tesco should be everything, bank, insurance, food, department store, broadband. Probably trips to the moon and sex workers before 2020. If the housing market had been more realistically controlled more workers would have more disposable income to spend buying goods from more industries to keep more manufacturing going. As it is 95%+ of the population have sod all left each month for personal pampering to a level that can keep other businesses, shops, and services buoyant. Personal savings and disposable income are the key signs of a healthy economy, not the level of spending from cheap debt. It doesn't matter what industries you have in your country if the bulk of the population cannot afford to buy its products.
Doc H.