Our complaints data

We take complaints seriously at Guardian and welcome the opportunity to learn from our customers’ concerns. You can find out more about our level of recent complaints and how we dealt with them below.

We’re committed to giving all our customers a high standard of service, but we know that sometimes we don’t get things right. When this happens, we aim to deal with all complaints in a fair, efficient and effective manner.

Complaints publication report

We report details of our complaints to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) twice a year. This table covers our most recent report - the six-month period from 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2011.

Firm name: Guardian Assurance Ltd
Other firms included in this report (if any): Guardian Linked Life Assurance Ltd, Guardian Pensions Management Ltd
Period covered in this report: 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2011
Brand/trading names covered: Guardian Financial Services

  Number of complaints opened Number of complaints closed** Complaints closed within eight weeks* (%) Close complaints upheld by firm (%)
Banking† n/a n/a n/a n/a
Home finance† n/a n/a n/a n/a
General insurance and pure protection 39 37 89% 24%
Decumulation, life and pensions 905 848 88% 32%
Investments 11 12 92% 58%

*Eight weeks is the FSA timescale for us to resolve a complaint. If we can’t do this, customers have the right to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsmen Service.

**The number of complaints resolved may be greater than the number received as some of those resolved may have been received in the preceding reporting period.

†We don’t have any products which fall into these categories.

Putting the numbers into context

We had over 365,087 live policies and plans at the end of June 2011 and received 955 reportable complaints in the first half of 2011. This means we received around one complaint for every 382 live policies and plans. We upheld 288 reportable complaints in this time, which is equal to one for every 1,267 live policies and plans.

Learning from complaints

We’re committed to treating our customers fairly and will continue to do all we can to learn from the complaints we receive to improve our level of service to you in the future. If you have a complaint, please contact us.