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Of the 617 cases that the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received between 1 April and 30 September this year, only 35 per cent of complaints were found in favour of the consumer, while 57 per cent found in favour of the IFAs.

A further 8 per cent of cases had a mixed outcome, of which the FOS agreed with some, but not all, of the complaints.

The FOS has also revealed that the number of misselling claims has recently decreased.

In 2005/2006, it was receiving 200 endowment complaints per month. That has now reduced to 100 complaints each month on average.

A spokesman for the dispute service said that the most common complaint was about the cost of life cover and the plan charges on the final maturity value. The Ombudsmen often found that there was little chance of the policy achieving a worthwhile return on the premiums invested.

Other complaints were in relation to the advisers assessment of the consumer's risk appetite or about the fact that a product was likely to return less than the amount invested. While another common complaint was where the consumer believed marketing material was unclear or misleading.

Owen Wintersgill, director of Axxis Financial Planning, said that the way that IFAs write endowment business now makes it less likely for complaints against them to be upheld.

"Its is getting easier for advisers to defend themselves with better record keeping and documentation.

"Evidence is now more incontrovertible and it is not surprising that this is having a significant impact on complaints cases."