Endowment claim turned down. Any advice?

[petunia]

Sorry but this could get long.
We took out 2 policies with Standard Life, 1 in 1996 and 1 in 1999 as a top-up when we moved to a bigger house. We started them through an investment company recommended to us by the housebuilder (so advisor received commission!) As usual, we received statements saying what the growth was on the policies and as with most endowments, in the last few years the amount they grew decreased, and in the last 3-4 years we've had the warning letters saying that the loans aren't going to be paid off. Last year we actually started "over-paying" an amount each month on the mortgage in a bid to reduce the amounts owed.
We complained to the FSA last year, our main argument being that as the first policy wasn't performing well, we should never have been advised in 1999 to take out the 2nd one. We had the response today from the FSA, saying that WE should have been aware that the 1st policy wasn't performing well and should have raised our concerns with the advisor before starting a 2nd one. I think this passes the buck really- surely you go to these financial advisors because THEY know what the alternatives are. The advisor didn't say anything about the 1st policy not perfoming well and that we should go for something else, it was him that recommended taking the 2nd endowment policy, (for the extra commission? or am I being too cynical here!)).
So my question is what do we do now? We have 'til 25th November to respond to the FSAs judgement, but first off, I'd really like to cancel both policies and just get life cover with someone else. Anyone with any advice?

Did you look on the Which website before you made the complaint? There are only certain things that are valid for the complaint to be upheld. Under-performance isn't one of them. We (DH and I)have had two endowment claims upheld - on the grounds of misselling. The first was DH's endowment - he took it on as a first time buyer in 1989, didn't know a thing about mortgages, went to the bank and signed for what they offered - endowment mortgage was the only thing offered to him, no mention of alternatives i.e. repayment mortgage or the risks of an endowment- hence clear cut case of misselling. The second endowment was also on the grounds of the terms not being clearly explained to us by the financial advisor.

this is the Which? website about endowments. It helped us when we claimed.
Not sure about what your next move should be, but legally there should be something in the letter from the endowment company telling what you can do next.

Oh, and we cut our losses with DH's policy and cancelled it, but we would lose so much by cashing in the second one, we have continued with it as a savings investment (poor value admittedly). We have converted the mortgage to a repayment.