Distress over an investment linked policy

A reader asked for my advice on the following:

> He invested heavily in an investment-linked policy. He made many fund switches in past years.

> Recently, he asked to make a partial surrender. The company held back the payment of the surrender amount, to investigate his fund switches. The payment was not made after more than one month.

> The company did not specify in writing the reason for the delay and the nature of the investigation. The customer called the company, but was given verbal promises that were not kept.

>The customer also asked to switch from the equity fund to the money market fund. This was not executed. The customer went to the company the following day and submitted a new request. This company did not execute the switch. The company wrote a week later to state that the switching has been suspended due to irregularites. They did not specify the nature of the irregularities. The equity fund dropped by 30% over the next two weeks, causing great loss to the customer.

I advised the customer to lodge a complaint with MAS on the dreadful conduct of the insurance company. If this is not resolved, the customer should take up a legal case against the company for the losses that they have caused to him.