Does being gay exclude us from the same financial services as heterosexual couples?

Q In 2001, my partner and I accepted a joint mortgage offer of ?125,000 from Abbey National. During conversations with an Abbey National adviser on protection plans, life insurance and so on, my partner and I stated that in the event of our deaths, we each wanted to leave the property mortgage-free to the other.

Our adviser told us that to do this, we would need separate insurance policies for the full amount of the joint mortgage, which we signed up for without hesitation. I have since discovered that this advice may have been incorrect and my partner and I should have been offered the cheaper option of a joint insurance policy.

Armed with this information, I wrote to Abbey National's complaints department in January and, apart from letters saying "sorry it's taking so long", it has been unable to provide me with an answer.

My partner and I are both female - does this exclude us from the same financial services as heterosexual couples?

JM

A Well it certainly shouldn't. Joint-life policies can be taken out by any couple taking on a mortgage, whether married, co-habiting, same-sex, relatives or just friends, and you should definitely have been offered the option.

Abbey echoed this sentiment when I contacted the bank to ask why you had been sold separate policies - it says it will speed up its investigation into your case and suggested there may have been another reason why the adviser recommended separate policies.

But I can't see what possible reason there could be if your only request was that the mortgage be paid off in the event of one of you dying. The only person who gains from such a sale is the adviser, who must surely have received a double commission, one for each plan sold.

Do let me know what explanation Abbey finally offers you - unless there are significant facts you haven't disclosed to me, this sounds like a classic case of mis-selling.