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£3,000 windfalls await 'lost' Standard Life savers
More than 70,000 people have still not claimed shares that they are entitled to as a result of the firm's demutualisation in 2006
Standard Life, the Edinburgh-based insurance and investment group, is to attempt to reunite investors with £113m in shares in the company that have been unclaimed since it demutualised in 2006.
About 73,000 people have still not claimed their shares in the company, which were handed to investors in the firm's with-profits fund. The largest unclaimed stake is worth an estimated £120,000, although the average is closer to £3,000, the company said.
Standard Life has asked the company that manages its register of shareholders, Capita Asset Services, to run another tracing programme in an attempt to contact anyone who has not yet claimed.
The shares are held in an unclaimed assets trust, which will close in 2016. Those who have not claimed by then will lose their entitlement.
When the group demutualised in 2006 it had around 2.4 million policyholders with an entitlement to cash or shares and 280,000 of these people failed to claim what they were due. "Since then, Standard Life has worked to reunite those still to claim with their assets, reducing the figure to 73,000 people who have still to make a claim," it said.
Paul McKenna, the associate group company secretary, said: “To date we’ve reunited over 200,000 people all around the world with these unclaimed assets. We ran a very successful campaign in 2009 and we are hopeful that our latest effort will have equally positive results. The average amount those who still have unclaimed assets are likely to be entitled to is over £3,000 and we estimate the largest claim to be over £120,000, depending on share price.
"These entitlements are held in an unclaimed assets trust, which is closing on 9 July 2016, which is why we are making this concerted push well ahead of time running out.”
All those eligible should receive a letter from Capita outlining how to make a claim within the next few months.
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