PensionsJul 2 2014

Hunt for Eq Life investors without addresses kick off

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The government has now contacted all those policyholders it can trace and has published a list of policies that are eligible for compensation.

Anyone with an eligible policy who has not been contacted by the scheme, can also call 0300 0200150 to check their eligibility.

Equitable Life policies that are eligible are:

• Equitable Life Conventional With-Profits policies bought between 1 September 1992 and 31 December 2000 inclusive;

• Equitable Life Alternating With-Profits policy that either started between 1 September 1992 and 31 December 2000 inclusive, or had at least one premium paid into it between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2000 inclusive; and

• Equitable Life WPA (With-Profits annuity) policy bought between 1 September 1992 and 31 December 2000 inclusive.

Government maladministration was identified as having affected policyholders’ investment decisions between September 1992 and December 2000.

This means that a policyholder’s relative loss only applies to returns received from investment decisions from this period.

When deciding on compensation, the scheme first looks at a range of alternative with-profits companies that offered the appropriate mix of with-profits business over the period in question, in order to calculate a comparable fund value.

This value is then compared with the own fund value to calculate relative loss.

If the value of the Equitable Life policy is less than it would have been with a comparable company, the policy would be deemed to have made a relative loss.

If the value of the Equitable Life policy is greater than it would have been with a comparable company, the policy would be deemed to have made a relative gain.

Policies may have made a relative loss or a relative gain depending on how they performed compared with similar products with comparable companies.

Only policies that have made a relative loss will receive a payment.

Where the payee on a policy has died, his or her estate becomes the payee.

In practice this means making payment to the executor or administrator of the estate.

However there are further rules surrounding payments issued in relation to deceased with-profits annuitants.

In October the government extended the Equitable Life payment scheme to mid-2015 to maximise the number of policyholders who would be able to receive the payments they are due.

The scheme had previously been due to close in April 2014.

The scheme was set up in 2011 and the government warned because the address information the ELPS received from Equitable Life itself was up to 20-years-old or non-existent in some cases, the scheme would be unable to trace some policyholders.

More than 400,000 policies were supplied without contact addresses.