Final call for former Scottish Life members to claim payments following demutualisation in 2001
Monday, 23 April 2007
Scottish Life is making a last call for former members1 to get in touch if they had an eligible policy at the time of the company's demutualisation in 2001, as they may be entitled to a payment of £500 for loss of membership. In accordance with the scheme particulars set out at the time, such compensation payments must be finalised by 1 July 2007, six years after the date of demutualisation. After this time, there will be no entitlement for compensation payments for loss of membership.
A web-based service at http://www.scottishlife.co.uk/slmembership has been set up to deal with enquiries.2
There are currently around 15,000 former members of Scottish Life who are still eligible for compensation, representing a total amount of unclaimed payments of approximately £7.5 million.
Following the demutualisation, Royal London put in place a robust three stage tracing procedure for tracking down former Scottish Life members who had not responded to earlier multiple mailings:
- in the first instance, members were traced via banks, building societies and IFAs.
- the second stage involved an exercise conducted through the Department for Work and Pensions, using their database.
- finally, Scottish Life worked with an external specialist tracing agency from August 2004 to March 2006 and, for this purpose, subscribed annually to the Unclaimed Asset Register, utilising this to find previously untraced members.
Alasdair Buchanan, Head of Communications at Scottish Life, commented:
"From the time of demutualisation, we've been determined to do everything within our power to ensure former Scottish Life members received any compensation due to them, but we are now approaching the end of the claim period set out in the scheme particulars. During this time we conducted an extremely thorough tracing exercise to identify those people we had not been able to contact through the usual channels. As a result of our initial mailings and these subsequent efforts, we've been able to find over 210,000 members already and make payments to them totalling more than £105 million.
"In line with the legal procedure established at the time of demutualisation, we are now approaching the final deadline of 1 July 2007 for claims. We are therefore making a final call for people to contact us if they think they may be entitled to a payment for loss of membership. If their details are on the list of people who are due payment, we will take the necessary steps to process their claim.
"Any money which isn't paid to former members by 1 July 2007 will remain in the Scottish Life Fund for the benefit of those people who have policies in the Fund."
- ENDS -
1 See Editors Notes for explanation of membership of Scottish Life
2 See Editors Notes for details of the information needed in order to deal with enquiries.
For further information please contact:
Scottish Life
Alasdair Buchanan, Head of Communications
0131 456 7133
Polhill Communications
Jenette Perry or Loreen Addy
020 7655 0530
Editor's Notes:
1. Membership of Scottish Life
Any customer whose policy
- was in force on 11 September 2000 and still in force as at 1 July 2001, and
- was issued in their own name, and
- was not assigned to any other party prior to 1 July 2001
and who has not already received a payment of £500 for loss of membership rights may be included in the list of former members who have still to claim their compensation payment.
It should be noted, however, that not all policies issued by the Scottish Life Assurance Company conferred membership on an individual (eg. most Personal Pension Plans did not). A list of the policies which confer membership can be found on our website at http://www.scottishlife.co.uk/slmembership
2. Information needed to deal with enquiries
Full details of how former members can submit a claim are given on our website at http://www.scottishlife.co.uk/slmembership
This includes access to a Verification of Identity Form which can be downloaded, completed and sent to us by post. Alternatively, former members with no web access can write to us for further details at:
SL Membership Team
Scottish Life
PO Box 23811
57 Henderson Row
Edinburgh
EH3 5XJ
3. Scottish Life was founded in 1881 in Edinburgh as a proprietary company, becoming a mutual company in 1968.
On 1 July 2001, Scottish Life demutualised and transferred its business to The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited. Scottish Life is a division of Royal London and is the specialist pension business within the Group, providing individual and group pensions to the market via intermediaries.
4. Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value premium propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK and has a particularly strong track record for with profits performance.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £30.8 billion. Group businesses serve over three million customers and employ 2,640 people. (Figures quoted are as at 31 December 2006)